A DRUG dealer who told police he made between £2,000 and £4,000 a day on the streets of Bradford has been locked up for two years and four months for his part in working for "monsters".

Liam Stoyles, of no fixed address, was arrested on August 1 last year after police stopped his car and smashed its windows to detain him.

The 23-year-old was found to have heroin and crack cocaine in his pockets with a street value of £1,058, according to prosecutor Rupert Doswell.

Bradford Crown Court heard Stoyles admitted in his police interview he was earning thousands of pounds a day by taking drugs out to users, and was forced to take up the role to pay off a debt he owed to organised crime bosses.

Rebecca Young, defending Stoyles, said her client had an "unenviable" criminal record and had gone from a regular cannabis user to experimenting with cocaine.

Mrs Young said Stoyles felt he had "no choice" but to start dealing drugs.

She added: "He took cocaine and that affected his thinking skills, so he felt trapped in the situation and didn't know how to get out of it.

"He is 23 and not daft, and has full insight into this offending.

"He also knows that if he doesn't break this cycle he will spend much of his adult life in prison or end up dead."

The court heard that the time he has spent on remand in prison has given him the opportunity to come off drugs and he is now motivated to find a job upon his release.

Stoyles has also vowed to leave Bradford and move to Essex and live with his aunt and uncle, who have promised to get him a job at a steelworks.

The Honourary Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said he hoped Stoyles could stay true to his word of turning his life around.

Sentencing Stoyles to 28 months in prison, he said: "You were clearly going backwards and forwards handing over the products.

"You weren't allowed to keep much and that is the way of the evil men you were working for.

"Once in the grip of these monsters you became a willing servant.

"You were almost a slave to their very violent ways and I hope people like you will assist if you are so well-intended to catch these masterminds.

"With this level of police activity their days are numbered."