A WOMAN who got involved in the North-East drugs trade after moving to the region for work was last night starting two years behind bars.

Mother-of-one Evadney Salmon, 36, was jailed after she admitted being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.

The asylum seeker was caught with £5,000 of crack cocaine when police searched her home in Victoria Street, Middlesbrough, in November.

Teesside Crown Court was told yesterday that officers also discovered more than £2,500 in cash - some hidden in a training shoe - and three mobile phones.

Rod Hunt, prosecuting, said train tickets found in the flat showed Salmon had travelled between Middlesbrough, Darlington, York, Doncaster and London in the days before she was arrested.

Salmon gave police a false address in London and a fake one in Middlesbrough when she was stopped and searched on November 4, but two keys found in her pocket fitted the lock at the Victoria Street flat.

Mr Hunt told judge George Moorhouse that the Home Office was now looking at Salmon's case and she was classed as having "overstayed her welcome".

David Ward, mitigating, described his client as "naive and very much out of her depth" in the drugs trade.

He said she had been used by a man who was said to have been the brains behind the operation, but he had never been caught.

Judge Moorhouse told Salmon: "You came up to Middlesbrough on the pretext of finding some work.

"It is clear that, in recent weeks, you had been visiting London, and other places close to this particular town.

"You must appreciate that people who get involved in drugs - at whatever level - are committing a very serious offence that justifies a custodial sentence.

"It is clear that you were very much under the influence of a man with whom you had formed a relationship, and it seems to me that is how you became involved in this offence."