POLICE officers patrolling Cardiff Road, Newport, arrested a man selling heroin, a court heard.

Jamie Messenger, 36, had drugs worth £500 on him, plus £400 in cash.

When his home in Eddison Ridge, Malpas, was searched there were drugs worth £4,000, prosecutor Hugh Wallace told Cardiff crown court.

Messenger admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply and supplying heroin, and was jailed for three years and nine months.

He claimed the drugs at his home were not his and had been asked by a man he would not name to keep them for him.

"I was not going to sell those drugs and they hadn't been there long," he said.

Also found in the house were two sets of scales.

Recorder Patrick Curran said it was not possible to place any reliance on what Messenger said about the drugs found in his home, and he rejected his explanation.

His counsel, Hywel Hughes, said he was a man with no assets who had previous convictions for stealing, burglary and assaulting the police. At one time, he said, he had been spending £140 a week on drugs.

"He is vulnerable to the influence of others but is changing," he added.

The Recorder told Messenger: "There was probably a much more experienced criminal behind all this.

"You are to some extent a naive individual."