A MAN who stored more than £8,000 of Ecstasy in his home for a drug dealer has been jailed for three years.

Heroin addict Stuart Armstrong, 22, of Cromwell Avenue, Stockton, admitted a charge of possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply, when he appeared at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Also in the dock was his partner and mother-of-four Joanne Beedle, 25, of the same address. She admitted a charge of possession of methadone with intent to supply it to Armstrong.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, told the court Armstrong had been working as a "warehouseman", storing drugs for a dealer in his house.

He said that Armstrong was found in a car with a wrap of heroin on June 6. Police then searched the house and found 166gms of Ecstasy powder with a street value of £4,980 and a bottle of methadone in a wardrobe.

A later search found 12 bottles of methadone, which had not been present during the first hunt.

Police also found capsules purporting to be health supplements, but some of them were found to contain Ecstasy powder.

In police interview, Beedle told officers she had got the methadone for her boyfriend to try to get him off heroin.

The court heard she had no previous convictions and no drug habit.

Nigel Soppitt, for Armstrong, said his client had money difficulties and had succumbed to pressure from a dealer to use his house.

Judge George Moorhouse jailed Armstrong for three years. He sentenced Beedle to 12 months in prison, suspended for 12 months.