FIVE people arrested as part of a police drive against low level heroin dealing have admitted charges relating to the supply of the class A drug.

Further charges are still to be put to others arrested as part of the pre-Christmas crackdown.

All were arrested as police swooped on various addresses aimed at targeting those involved in heroin supply, often at street level, which followed from an undercover operation using test purchase officers posing as users earlier in the year.

In the latest hearing, at Durham Crown Court, Philip Thomas Crooks, also known as Stone, and Karl Robert Lewis denied being concerned in the supply of class A drugs, on different dates between June and September last year.

But, Crooks admitted supplying heroin six times between August and October, while Lewis admitted four similar charges, on dates in August and September.

On a separate indictment, Ben Michael Ferguson and Gemma West admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin, in June.

Ferguson also admitted five individual occasions when it was supplied, while West admitted supplying the drug three times in June, and a single count of offering to supply, also that month.

Kirsty Marie Rank admitted a single charge of offering to supply, on July 13.

Martin Towers, prosecuting, said those pleas were, “acceptable” to the Crown.

“There’s no specific suggestion that any of the defendants have profited to any great degree from this, so there will be no application for any proceeds of crime hearing,” he added.

Deputy Circuit Judge Paul Worsley QC adjourned sentence on all five of the defendants who pleaded guilty to a further hearing at the court, on Friday March 9.

He granted bail in the intervening period to 41-year-old Crooks, of Chestnut Grove, Ushaw Moor, 35-year-old Lewis, of East Side, Bearpark, 33-year-old Ferguson, of Woodland Crescent, Kelloe, and 32-year-old West, formerly of Churchill Square, Gilesgate, who was to supply an updated address to the court.

Rank, 26, of Newton Street, Ferryhill, remains remanded in custody at Low Newton Women’s Prison, in Durham.

Charges remain outstanding to other defendants, 47-year-old Barry Cosgrove, of Silver Courts, Brandon, and 44-year-old Jason Lee Storey, of West Street, Grange Villa, near Chester-le-Street.

Storey, who is serving a prison sentence at Holme House Prison, Stockton, until March 9, was granted technical bail after that date. Cosgrove was bailed until the March 9 hearing.