A woman drug dealer was jailed for five years yesterday after she pestered teenagers to buy heroin.

Beverley Jeffries, 27, repeatedly left answering machine messages for a 17-year-old who was trying to quit drugs, asking if he wanted to buy heroin, said Shaun Dodds, prosecuting.

The youngster's mother told police that Jeffries, also a heroin addict, had "plagued" the family with calls offering to sell heroin.

Jeffries, supplied heroin to teenagers in Hartlepool, Teesside, for a year, Teesside Crown Court heard.

She was arrested at home in November 1999 with her boyfriend, who had a package of heroin worth £800 hidden between his buttocks.

Rod Hunt, defending, said Jeffries accepted that she had contributed to other people's addictions.

Jeffries, of Turnbull Street, Hartlepool, admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin between December 1998 and November 1999, and to supplying and possession of the drug with intent to supply.

Judge John Walford told her: "You were plaguing young people to sell them drugs and leaving them to suffer, and there has to be a sentence which contains a deterrent element."