A TEENAGE drug dealer caught selling cocaine and heroin from a Kinder Surprise egg toy container had a stash of more than £1,000 in cash at his home, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Samuel Ferenc was 17 when he was spotted by the police trafficking Class A drugs on the streets of Keighley on the morning of January 8 last year.

He did a drug deal in an alleyway on Marlborough Street before going to Emily Street where he was apprehended with the plastic egg.

Ferenc pulled free and ran off but he was arrested near Asda when two more officers joined the pursuit. He fell over and threw the egg toy container away but it was recovered with Class A drugs inside it.

A search of his home in Neville Street, Keighley, uncovered £1,034 in cash and more bags of drugs, the court was told. The total value of the heroin and cocaine seized was £150.

Ferenc did not answer police questions. He failed to attend for his court hearing and was arrested on a warrant.

Now 18, he pleaded guilty to possession of heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and was released on bail.

Today, he was sentenced to a two-year community order with 200 hours of unpaid work by the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Richard Mansell QC, who said there was an element of exploitation in the case.

Ferenc’s barrister, Fiona Clancy, said the teenager had moved to Keighley with his family to get away from ‘a bad crowd’ elsewhere in the country.

She pointed to the significant delay before he was charged meaning he could no longer be dealt with by the Youth Court.

Miss Clancy said the money seized by the police didn’t belong to Ferenc. It would have been moved on to those further up the drugs trafficking chain. He wasn’t in possession of a phone, dealer list or scales.

The court heard that Ferenc was dealing Class A drugs to pay off a cannabis debt.

He had a stable address and he and his fiancée were expecting their first child.

Judge Mansell said Ferenc was very much in the cycle of dealing drugs.

An adult offender would have gone to prison for up to four and a half years but he was 17 at the time. Had he been dealt with promptly, it would have been by the Youth Court.

Judge Mansell said the practice of releasing people under investigation for many months, especially for drugs offences, had become very prevalent.