A MAN caught dealing heroin on the streets of Newport by police officers in June, was found to have a quantity of the drug at his flat with a street level value of around £17,000.

When Michael Moore was arrested shortly after doing a street deal on a footpath near the city's Maindee primary school on June 24, he told the officer who apprehended him that he was carrying "brown (heroin), white (cocaine) and bud (cannabis)".

Police found he was carrying two wraps of heroin worth £40-80, another worth £100-150, 10 sealed bags of cannabis worth round £100, and four 'rocks' of cocaine.

He was also carrying a sharp kitchen knife in the waistband of his trousers, and £235 in cash.

At his flat on Corporation Road, Newport, 170 grams of heroin - with the street value of around £17,000 - was found, along with an envelope on which was written drug prices.

Moore, 28, subsequently pleaded guilty to charges of possession of heroin with intent to supply, possession of cannabis with intent to supply, possession of cocaine, and possession of an article with a blade/point in a public place.

Defence counsel Gareth Williams told a sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court that Moore had been serving a prison sentence of two years and eight months for a robbery offence and was released on licence last February.

He had moved into a flat at a property on Corporation Road, found himself "broke and relatively lonely" and got into taking heroin. Subsequently, he had begun to sell it to support his own habit.

"It was delivered to his home and he was told to take it here and there for money," said Mr Williams, who added that Moore intends to deal with his addiction during his time inside, and will be "wiser" when he is next released.

Judge Daniel Williams sentenced Moore to three years and four months in prison on the heroin supply charge. Lesser sentences for the other offences - eight months, four months, and six months respectively - will run concurrent to that.