A TEENAGER who had been dealing drugs from his pushbike for just an hour before he was caught red-handed by police has been locked up for nearly two years.

Police were operating in Devonshire Street in Keighley at around 9.30am on November 9 last year when a member of the public told them that Callum Roberts, 19, was “street-dealing”.

Prosecutor Richard Walters told Bradford Crown Court that officers saw the defendant on his bike talking to a man, and suspected a deal was taking place.

On searching Roberts they found a mobile phone, £107.50 in cash, two wraps of heroin, and a container with a further 24 wraps inside.

The defendant admitted his offending in full in interview, saying it was the first day he had been involved in dealing.

He said he had started out at 8.30am that morning with 32 wraps of heroin and 12 wraps of cocaine, working in exchange for a payment of £70.

Roberts, of Bracken Bank Way, Keighley, admitted charges of the possession of Class A drugs with an intent to supply.

James Gelsthorpe, defending, described his client as someone at the “low end of the intellect spectrum”, and a young man who was “easily preyed upon”.

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He said Roberts had lost his job and decided to get involved in dealing to earn money, “taking a role of high-risk for little reward.”

He said the defendant had no previous convictions for drugs-related offences and argued that any sentence of imprisonment could be suspended.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, disagreed, and sentencing Roberts to 20 months in a young offender institution told him: “You decided to raise money by being introduced to drug dealing.

“Your eyes were wide open.

“There you were, on your bicycle, blatantly dealing heroin and crack cocaine.

“Thanks to a decent member of the public, you were caught.

“I cannot, and will not, suspend sentences for those, however challenged, dealing drugs in this part of West Yorkshire.

“Tempted as I am to give you a chance, it’s not on the table.

“If you decide to deal drugs, you learn the lesson.”