Telford street dealer selling crack and heroin locked up after attempting to sell to police

Craig Lynas, 37, from Telford, was involved in supplying two undercover police officers and sending hundreds of text messages offering drugs for sale.

At Birmingham Crown Court yesterday Lynas was jailed for a total of three-and-a-half years for conspiring to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Judge Simon Drew QC said Lynas had played a "significant role" in a wider drugs conspiracy across the Telford area.

"There was also a degree of management with control of the phone and a financial advantage and you were aware of the scale of the drugs operation," he said.

He said aggravating features were Lynas's criminal record for dishonesty stretching back 20 years, and that he had been dealing drugs while on bail for other matters.

Lynas, of Beaconsfield, Brookside, had admitted two charges of conspiring to supply Class A drugs between December 2012 and May this year.

At court yesterday Mr Michael Duck, prosecuting, said that Lynas worked together with an associate named Robert Hacking as street dealers.

He said that an undercover officer known as "Tony" was given the defendant's name and the "drug line" used by Lynas. The mobile phone was later linked to Lynas from a number of occasions that he topped up the pay-as-you-go phone.

Mr Duck said that heroin and cocaine were supplied to the officer. On occasions Lynas arrived at meetings by car in which Hacking was the passenger. He said that subsequent surveillance of the two men showed them dealing drugs, including calling at the home addresses of known addicts.

He said that in April last year a second undercover officer named "Steve" also had contact with the defendant.

Mr Simon Parry, for Lynas, said his client had turned to alcohol and drugs after the break-up of a relationship and at a time there were several drugs operations running in the Telford area.

He said it made Lynas an "easy target" to be recruited to hold a drugs phone and to drive Hacking around. His client now bitterly regretted and was ashamed of his actions.

Sentence for Hacking, 24, of Willowfield, Woodside, who has also admitted the conspiracy charges, was adjourned for further reports linked to harassment offences and a breach of a suspended prison sentence at another court. He remains in custody.