A ‘THIRD strike’ drug dealer was caught when a car being chased by the police ran into his vehicle, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Qasim Ahmed threw 42 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin into a garden after the smash on Jarratt Street, off Whetley Lane, Bradford.

The incident happened at 8.10pm on November 26, the court was told yesterday.

Ahmed, 32, of Naples Street, Girlington, Bradford, was “the unluckiest man in Bradford,” his barrister, Howard Shaw said.

He was caught up in the incident when people fled from the crashed vehicle, telling the police: “I wasn’t in the car. He hit me.”

But officers saw him throw something away and recovered the class A drugs, valued at £760.

Ahmed had £559 in cash on him that was also seized by the police.

Prosecutor, Paul Nicholson, said Ahmed had nine previous convictions for 20 offences.

In 2013, he was jailed for possession of heroin with intent to supply and, in July 2015, he was locked up for six years for warehousing class A drugs.

The second drug dealing conviction came just months after his release from prison.

He was arrested in a taxi in Bradford city centre and found to be in possession of a small amount of cocaine and keys to a flat at Acton House, Little Germany.

Police found a haul of class A drugs and other paraphernalia under the floorboards in the hall of the unfurnished flat, the court heard

It included 2.4 kilos of cocaine, 2.3 kilos of heroin, crack cocaine and a cutting agent, with a total street value of £400,000.

Yesterday, Ahmed was jailed for more than five and a half years for possession of crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply.

He received seven years as a third strike drug dealer, minus 20 per cent for his early guilty plea at the magistrates court.

Mr Shaw said in mitigation that Ahmed was “sucked back” into the world of drug dealing when he was released from prison.

He obtained work at a bottling factory in Bradford but it was a temporary contract and when it ended, he peddled drugs on the streets again.

Mr Shaw said Ahmed was very realistic in his outlook and determined to turn his back once and for all on class A drugs.

His sister had written “a very eloquent letter” to the judge.

“It is a very sad situation,” Mr Shaw said.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, praised Ahmed’s “fine family” for supporting him.

He told him: “There will be no lectures from me.

"You know the situation as well as I do, sadly.”

The judge ruled that the benefit figure from Ahmed’s drug dealing was £1,319, with the benefit figure of £559 being the value of the money seized by the police and forfeited.