A DEALER was told by a judge he had saved himself years in jail after he admitted involvement in two separate conspiracies to supply class A drugs.

Matthew Manners was told by Judge Sean Morris that drugs such as heroin killed people and said they had messed up his own life, which the defendant acknowledged.

Manners, who was jailed for nine years at Teesside Crown Court, admitted helping to co-ordinate drugs drop-offs in the Teesside area between January 1 2014 and November 13 of that year.

At one stage the 36-year-old was using as many as ten different mobile phones for deliveries and in an attempt to evade detection by the police.

Manners, who appeared via a video link to Leeds Prison, also admitted “pedalling” drugs in Leeds and Nottinghamshire between January 1 and February 19 last year.

The hardened criminal, who first went to a young offenders’ institution for possessing drugs with intent to supply aged 18, had a raft of previous offences on his record for drugs and violence.

In 2007 he was jailed for seven years for possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

However despite his dreadful record, references from people who had recently worked with him in prison painted a slightly different picture and he was described as “helpful, thoughtful, co-operative and remorseful”.

He was said to have accepted responsibility for the drugs dealing and hoped to be able to prove himself by being given what his barrister described as “some light at the end of the tunnel” courtesy of not too an onerous sentence.

The court heard how Manners, of no fixed address, had been on remand in custody for ten months since his guilty pleas because of a delay with the case.

Judge Morris said: “In 2014/15 you were involved in the pedalling of Class A drugs. You were supplying in the North, here on Teesside and the South, in Nottinghamshire.”

The judge advised Manners to “go back to the wings” and persuade others to admit similar offences and said as an act of mercy he would cut his jail sentence to nine years, when he would have faced much longer after a trial.

Detective Constable Steve Price, of Cleveland Police’s organised crime unit, said he welcomed the jail term on Manners.

He said: “Cleveland Police will always do everything in its power to bring perpetrators of drug dealing before the courts.”