UNDERCOVER police officers who used a Keighley addict to lure them to drug dealers in the town were happy he was "not in danger" shortly before he died, an inquest jury has been told.

James Varey, 38, died from alcohol and mixed drug poisoning at his home in Marley Street on June 13, 2012, after he bought heroin and drank lager in the company of two plain-clothes officers.

Mr Varey had been approached by the officers as part of the early stages of Operation Lambfield, set up in May 2012 to reduce crime in Keighley, including drugs offences.

One of the covert tactics involved in the operation was said to be identifying drug users and then using them to make contact with dealers.

Ifeanyi Odogu, acting on behalf of Mr Varey's family, had previously told the inquest in Bradford the operation was "inadequately planned", with risks to members of the public left entirely to officers on the ground, who had no specific training on the dangers of substance abuse.

In response, one of the undercover officers, who cannot be named, said Mr Varey showed "no signs of a high degree of intoxication", and "did not behave in any way as to cause concern".

"I was completely happy Mr Varey was not in any sort of danger," he said.

Summing up the evidence today, Assistant Bradford Coroner Neil Cameron said Mr Varey had been in Keighley town centre asking passers-by for change when he was approached by the two undercover officers, who engaged him in conversation and also gave him a can of lager.

They then went to his home, before going to an address in Pickle Street, Keighley, where a drug deal was said to be arranged.

Mr Varey, another man, and the two undercover officers then bought four wraps of street-heroin, two of which were kept by the officers, and two by Mr Varey.

Before leaving him, one of the officers also went into an off-licence and bought two cans of lager for Mr Varey, after he gave him £5 to do so.

Mr Cameron told the jury: "What we are investigating is how matters got to the stage of someone dying.

"Was Mr Varey recognisably in a condition that was an immediate threat to his life?

"Did the officers act inappropriately in not arranging any form of intervention?

"We're looking for whether anything contributed to his death. We are here to determine facts, not faults."

Earlier in the inquest, the jury was told Mr Varey had been found by Sarah Turner, said to be his partner at the time of his death, collapsed in his bathroom.

A toxicology report confirmed the cause of his death as alcohol and mixed drug poisoning.

A sample of his blood was found to contain 314mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, nearly four times the legal drink-drive limit.

It also contained 0.24mg of methadone – a drug prescribed as a substitute for heroin – and levels of morphine and codeine, described as indicators of the use of street-based heroin.

A statement from Mr Varey's consultant psychiatrist described him as having "long-standing problems with dependency on alcohol and drugs".

The hearing continues.