A DRUG dealer who kept packages of heroin hidden in a cemetery was jailed for over six years yesterday.

Police who discovered that John William Preston was back in business after his release from a seven-year sentence found £7,000 worth of heroin hidden at three locations in Darlington parks, including the cemetery off Thompson Street West.

They were led there by Preston's girlfriend Dawn Denham after a 7.45am raid on the couple's home in Garden Place, Darlington, said prosecutor Shaun Dodds.

The heroin was 68 per cent pure compared with the average normal 39 per cent.

Unemployed Preston, who was jailed in 1997 after an undercover operation to crack down on heroin dealers on Darlington's Skerne Park Estate, was planning a sunshine holiday with her. They also found air tickets to Gran Canaria in his car plus 1,220 Euros, two-way radios and a baseball bat.

Preston, who said his own heroin habit cost him up to £150 a day, was caught with dealers lists and a voicebank message on his mobile phone from an addict, saying: "Would you do me a big favour? My dad has sent me some money. Could you do me two of them until tomorrow morning."

Dan Cordey, defending, told Teesside Crown Court: "He spent four years and four months in custody and he was released drug free. But unfortunately after a series of family problems culminating in the loss of a child prior to it being born, and the suicide of an ex-girlfriend he took to using heroin and he was using £120 to £150 worth a day.

"He says that he was in his twenties when he was sentenced on the last occasion, and he did not manage long out of prison."

Preston admitted conspiracy to supply a Class A drug and possession of cannabis and amphetamines sulphate.

Judge Peter Armstrong told him: "I think you are beginning to realise now this sort of offending is going to end up in long prison sentences."

He was jailed for five years with another 15 months consecutively which was left over when he was released on licence from his last sentence.

The judge ordered confiscation of his L-registration Ford Fiesta and £1,800 and 1,440 Euros.