A MAN put behind bars for eight years, failed yesterday to convince top judges his drug convictions were "unsafe".

But London's Criminal Appeal Court left the door open for John Alan Scott's lawyers to submit another challenge, after investigations are made into an appeal by his co-defendant, Paul James Bryan.

Scott, 52, of Lord Street, Redcar, was jailed for eight years at Teesside Crown Court, after being found guilty in February 2002 of conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs.

Bryan, 44, of Bursto Street, Blackpool, was jailed for seven years, after pleading guilty to the two conspiracies. At his upcoming conviction appeal, for which no date has been set, Bryan will seek to withdraw those guilty pleas.

Lord Justice Latham, sitting with Mrs Justice Gloster and Judge Kenneth Zucker QC, yesterday refused to grant Scott permission to challenge his convictions.

The court heard that Bryan was head of a Cleveland-based organisation which over a period of two years, from June 1998 to May 2000, distributed large quantities of Class A drugs and Class B drugs, supplied by contacts in Liverpool.

Scott was alleged to have joined the conspiracy some time after it started.

Lord Justice Latham said the critical evidence against Scott was a recording of a conversation on January 13, 1999, obtained from a covert listening device installed in Bryan's home.

Scott had contended the conversation he had was at the instigation of a police officer who was wishing to obtain information on Bryan and the conspiracy.

Lord Justice Latham rejected the proposed grounds of appeal, including criticism of the trial judge's summing up to the jury in relation to Scott's lifestyle.