A MAN threw a brick through a car window while being chased for a drug debt, a court heard yesterday.

Magistrates in Darlington heard that a passenger in the car was a drug dealer who was chasing Allan Francis Slaven for £50 owed for cannabis.

Slaven, of Tyne Crescent, Darlington, pleaded guilty to criminal damage.

Blair Martin, prosecuting, said the occupants of the car exchanged words with Slaven in the street.

Mr Martin said: "(The drug dealer) has called the defendant a grass, whereupon the defendant has thrown a brick through the passenger window."

A fight in the street, in front of young children, broke out.

The court heard that 20year-old Slaven is the subject of a suspended sentence imposed at crown court for a wounding charge.

Magistrates committed the case to crown court for sentence. No mitigation was offered on Slaven's behalf.