A DRUG addict scared a police who burst into his home rightly suspecting he was a dealer, a court heard yesterday.

David Hatch, 37, had been about to inject himself and he pointed the syringe at a police officer, then squirted it over the officer's boot. The officer kicked it out of his hand, said prosecutor Simon Mallett.

Searches uncovered packets of amphetamines, or speed, worth about £5,000.

The police also seized £750 in cash and electronic scales from the house in Redcar, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Hatch had been on bail for identical offences and was serving an 18-month prison sentence yesterday with a release date in July.

David Lamb, defending, said Hatch had been a hopeless addict who was driven to injecting amphetamines that were normally snorted by users.

He was using ten grammes a day and selling some to friends and acquaintances but was not corrupting the innocent.

He was now drug-free in Holme House Prison, Stockton, after his Teesside Crown Court sentence last October, and he had regained a zest for life, said Mr Lamb.

The judge, Recorder Julian Norris, jailed Hatch, of Micklow Close, Redcar, for a further nine months consecutively and ordered him to pay £550 prosecution costs from his drugs money, with the £200 balance confiscated, after he pleaded guilty to possession of 64 grammes of amphetamines on July 11 with intent to supply them.