A cannabis dealer who carried on selling the drug after being caught red-handed supplying almost £400 worth of it over a two-day period has been jailed for more than four years yesterday.

Andrew Illingworth, 31, was sentenced for his fifth and sixth offences of possession of cannabis with intent to supply, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Illingworth, of no fixed address, had £60 of cannabis and £225 in cash with him when he was stopped by the police in central Bradford on April 28 last year.

He was at the wheel of a VW Golf heading towards Thornton Road but he parked it when he saw the police keeping an eye on him.

Illingworth was stopped on foot shortly afterwards with the bag of cannabis and phone on him, the court heard.

His phone contained 46 text messages relating to the supply of £395 worth of cannabis over the past two days.

Prosecutor Syam Soni said he was charged with the offence in April this year.

On June 19, 2020, at 5.20pm, police on patrol in Bradford stopped Illingworth in an Alfa Romeo on Spring Hall Lane.

He became agitated and angry, the court heard.

He was handcuffed and put in leg restraints when that turned to aggression.

Illingworth complained of police harassment and called the arresting sergeant a “pig ba***rd” and other offensive names, Mr Soni said.

When his home on Market Street in the city centre of Bradford was searched by officers, the police found £1,092 worth of skunk cannabis, a dealer list, a baseball bat, up to £500 in cash and drug bagging paraphernalia.

Illingworth said the cannabis was for his own use and the cash was his benefit money.

He denied the offence but went on to plead guilty to two offences of possession with intent to supply cannabis, disorderly behaviour, and breach of a suspended sentence order, imposed in December, 2019, also for possession with intent to supply cannabis.

Illingworth’s solicitor advocate, Shiraz Hussain, said his client was a hardworking fabricator and welder until he was made redundant in 2016.

He became depressed, the court was told.

He began taking cannabis and then selling it on the street when he got into debt.

Mr Hussain said Illingworth wanted to apologise for the rude names he called the police sergeant when he was arrested.

Recorder Margia Mostafa set a timetable under the Proceeds of Crime Act to assess Illingworth’s financial benefit from drug dealing.

She jailed him for a total of four years and two months.