A DRUG dealing couple are behind bars after police found more than £7,000-worth of heroin stashed in a bedroom.

Mark Laking, 34, was jailed for five years and seven months for what was his third Class A drug trafficking offence.

Levi Middleton, 23, was locked up for two-and-a-half years when the pair appeared at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Middleton was on a suspended sentence for smuggling drugs into prison when the raid was carried out on September 20.

Laking was on licence having been released from a four-year term just six months earlier, said prosecutor Emma Atkinson.

When police raided the three-storey house in Park Square, Hartlepool, officers also found a machete hidden under a bed.

There was also two sets of digital scales, £375 in cash and a number of mobile telephones, Miss Atkinson told the court.

The prosecutor said there were text messages on Middleton's phone, which showed she had been involved in drug dealing.

Among them were "can you weigh one more out?", "can you drop some out of the window" and "can you tell Sparky that gear tastes really strong".

Paul Cleasby, for Middleton, said: "The offending was unsophisticated and falls into a lesser role because she was performing her function under the direction of another.

"This lady has never served a custodial sentence before. As a child, she was not exposed to the best of influences, and it is not a surprise she finds herself in this position.

"She does not take it lightly, and she has been in tears. She is remorseful it has come to this."

Andrew Teate, for Laking, said: "The best point and only point in mitigation is that he pleaded guilty to this offence at the earliest opportunity."

Laking, of Westbrooke Avenue, and Middleton, of Penrith Street, both Hartlepool, admitted a charge of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.

Miss Atkinson told Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, that a total of 151g of heroin, worth £7,590 on the streets, was found in two packages in the bedroom.

In June 2012, Laking got three years' jail for possession with intent to supply and supplying Class A drugs.

He was convicted after a trial in May 2015 and was jailed for four years, after heroin was found hidden in a satellite dish.

In July this year - just two months before the raid - Middleton was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years, for taking cannabis and buprenorphine into Holme House Prison, Stockton.