A drug addict was jailed yesterday after he spent his £170 dole money on heroin and crack cocaine.

Neil John Pallister, 37, who has been an addict for 20 years, was arrested in a police swoop on a probation hostel in South Bank, Middlesbrough.

He emptied his pockets of the Class A drugs and admitted he would have sold some to fund his habit, said Richard Parsell, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court.

Pallister confessed he had bought the drugs that day with two weeks' money from the DSS - amounting to £170.

Police were searching rooms at the Nelson House hostel on the morning of November 17, last year, when Pallister returned there, the court was told.

When asked if he had any drugs, he said: "Yes, I've got some heroin". He produced heroin from one pocket and two lots of crack cocaine from others.

Also in his room were a small number of tinfoil squares used for wrapping drugs. They were seized, together with £45 cash.

Mr Parsell said: "He said it was for his own use and had acquired the substances earlier that day.

"At the police station, he tested positive for drugs in an examination in line with police national guidelines."

Pallister was jailed for 18 months after he pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.

The court was told he had been ordered to live at the hostel for three months as part of a community order, imposed for theft, at a court hearing a few days earlier.

He had a criminal record dating from 1993. His first drug conviction came in 1999 for possessing amphetamines. He was then convicted in January 2002 for possessing crack cocaine after being stop-searched in Redcar.

Nigel Soppitt, mitigating, said: "He discovered there were a lot of drugs in the hostel and he started using them.

"When he received £170, which was a fortnight's money rather than his usual weekly amount, he went out and spent it very quickly on the drugs he was caught with.

"He would have used the majority of drugs himself, but sold some to fund his own addiction."

Mr Soppitt added: "He has now had three months in prison on remand to think about his life and has taken courses to get rid of his addiction.

"It is a long, long road to rehabilitation, he knows that, but I ask Your Honour to impose a sentence which will assist him in that respect."

The judge, Recorder Ben Nolan, said Pallister deserved credit for his full and frank admissions to the police.