A JOBLESS heroin addict who sold drugs on the streets to fund his habit and “top-up” his benefits was today jailed for three years.

Paul Boyes was caught by police with six £10 wraps hidden inside a Kinder egg secreted between his buttocks in Middlesbrough in January.

The former construction worker, who was 25 on Sunday, immediately confessed to dealing, and said he had been doing so for three weeks.

Boyes admitted possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply at an earlier hearing before magistrates and was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court.

Judge Les Spittle said he was giving him credit for his guilty plea and frankness with the police, but said a prison sentence was inevitable.

“Those who deal in Class A drugs do so at their own peril,” the judge told him. “This means an immediate and substantial term of imprisonment.

“This was selling on a commercial basis to anyone who managed to make contact with you ­– to subsidise your own taking and to make some money.”

The court heard that police arrested Boyes in Parliament Road, Middlesbrough, and took him to his home, a flat in nearby Kensington Road.

When they searched him, officers found the plastic egg in his buttocks, and also recovered mobile phones containing messages from customers.

Sean Grainger, mitigating, told the court that Boyes has beaten his addiction since his arrest on January 14, and had started to rebuild his life.

He said Boyes had a good work history in scaffolding and joinery until becoming addicted to heroin two years ago and losing his job.