A teenage “commercial drug dealer” has been locked up for four-and-a-half years.

Shahzad Khaliq, 18, was caught repeatedly peddling heroin and crack cocaine on Keighley’s streets, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Khaliq, of Broomfield Road, Keighley, told officers: “No point arguing. I’ve been caught red-handed,” when he was arrested for the third time with wraps of the Class A drugs.

Prosecutor Stephen Wood told the court: “Even at his tender years, this defendant is a commercial drug dealer.”

Khaliq was twice seen dealing in heroin and crack cocaine in the Broomfield Road area in May last year. He ran off the first time and was arrested a week later.

The following month, he was detained on Belgrave Road after staff at a nearby school reported a group of youths acting suspiciously.

Wraps of Class A drugs were found in bushes nearby and Khaliq had £124 in cash on him.

On May 12 this year, he was caught dealing in Cavendish Street. He told police he was bullied into it.

Tom Rushbrooke, Khaliq’s solicitor advocate, said he was a low-level dealer who suffers psychiatric problems. He was vulnerable and open to being bullied.

He only turned 18 in March this year.

The judge, Recorder David Wilby QC, sentenced Khaliq to four-and-a-half years’ detention in a young offender institution.

The judge accepted that the teenager’s mental health problems made him more easy to bully.