A murdered drug dealer was in trouble over a drugs debt and desperate to receive money from a cocaine shipment to London, a court was told yesterday.

Bryan Scott, 26, who was shot dead on the Kirkleatham Showground, near Redcar, had previously been threatened by a gunman at his home.

Dean Taylor, the first prosecution witness at the Teesside Crown Court trial of the man charged with his murder, said that it was the talk of Redcar that Mr Scott had been threatened with being shot because of a drugs debt.

Mr Taylor, who denied that he was also a drug dealer, said that Mr Scott told him on the afternoon of his death that he was desperate to get hold of some money. Mr Scott said he was expecting money to arrive from London from a cocaine deal.

Mr Taylor said Mr Scott revealed that his estranged wife, Andrea Taylor, had driven the drugs to London, which angered him about her involvement.

Mr Taylor said he told Mr Scott that the men his wife knew in London through her ex-boyfriend were animals. He said that he told Mr Scott that he had "better get it sorted".

Anthony Bottrill, 41, of High Street, West Redcar, denies murdering Mr Scott, of Charles Street, Redcar, on March 18.

He also pleads not guilty to making a threat to kill Mr Taylor on Christmas Eve last year. The trial continues