A DRUG dealer who led police on a 15 mile car chase with £15,000 of heroin in the boot was today jailed for four years.

Colin Richardson, 28, sped off in a black Lexus from Thornton Road, Bradford, and ended up in Haworth, where he fled on foot across allotments with a sports bag containing drugs before being arrested.

When police officers later searched his flat in Bankfield Walk, Keighley, they found a cannabis factory with a potential £7,714 street value, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Richardson pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to possession with intent to supply heroin and synthetic cannabis, production of cannabis, possession of a small amount of cocaine, dangerous driving and having no insurance or licence, in March last year.

The case was adjourned until today after his barrister, Nigel Jamieson, had maintained that the 300 grams of heroin seized from the bag was worthless because the purity was so exceptionally low.

But Stephen Wood, for the Crown, told the court: "What an ideal substance to sell blind to people, to make near enough £15,000."

Mr Jamieson replied that would not have made Richardson any friends in Keighley.

Mr Wood told the court that the sports bag also contained £894 of synthetic cannabis, scissors, scales and latex gloves.

Richardson accelerated away from the police shortly before midday on March 14, 2015, beginning a 15 mile chase in which the West Yorkshire Police helicopter was scrambled.

He drove through residential areas at high speed, including going 70mph in a 20mph zone.

Richardson, now of Braithwaite Walk, Keighley, eventually stopped in Hebden Road, Haworth, and fled on foot with the bag of drugs.

When he was apprehended, he said of the bag: "It's just my clothes."

At his flat, officers found 20 cannabis plant in a growing tent. The electricity supply had been bypassed.

During interview Richardson told the police he found the bag of drugs in a bin.

In mitigation, Mr Jamieson said his client, who had no previous convictions, led a law-abiding and constructive life until he began taking cocaine after suffering a relationship breakdown and a tragic family bereavement.

He was given the bag of drugs to look after but no-one came to collect. It hung around in his flat for weeks before he put it in the car boot, where it remained for a fortnight because he did not know what to do with it.

"He was not going to sell the drugs. They were not on the market," Mr Jamieson said.

Jailing Richardson, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told him: "You have made a desperate attempt to distance yourself from the bag."

Judge Thomas also repeated his warning that "those who choose to supply Class A drugs will go straight to prison for a significant amount of time".