A father-of-four has been jailed for more than three years after police caught him dealing heroin and crack cocaine.

Officers in an unmarked car suspected that Mohammed Ashrif had been involved in a drugs hand-over after seeing his vehicle pull up near to a man in the Otley Road area of Baildon last July.

Prosecutor Robert Galley told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that after they witnessed an exchange between the men, Ashrif's car was followed into Saltaire Road.

"Initially he refused to open the doors so the window was broken and an officer reached in to remove the ignition keys," said Mr Galley.

During a search of the hire car, the officers seized a Kinder-type egg containing seven wraps of crack cocaine and nine heroin deals.

The court heard that the drugs were worth about £100 and the police also found £480 in cash although Ashrif maintained that was nothing to do with the drugs.

Ashrif, of Walden Drive, Heaton, Bradford, admitted to police that he had been intending to sell the drugs on behalf of someone else.

Back in 2005 Ashrif was jailed for four years for possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply and yesterday he again admitted supplying heroin and possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

Barrister Emma Downing said her 46-year-old client had admitted the offending at the first opportunity in July but he had not been charged until October.

She accepted that the offences were motivated by financial gain, but she stressed that it was to fund his own drug addiction and pay off debts rather to finance a luxury lifestyle.

Miss Downing explained that Ashrif had started taking heroin to relieve the extreme pain he was suffering as a result of a serious ankle injury in the late 1990s.

After his release from prison in 2007 he was drug-free for nearly five years, but Miss Downing said Ashrif had relapsed into drug use at the beginning of last year.

She said he amassed drug debts through using heroin and cocaine and came under pressure to deal drugs himself.

Miss Downing said her client now bore the heavy burden of leaving his wife alone in the community to bring up their children.

Judge David Hatton QC told Ashrif that the appropriate sentence for the offences before taking account of his guilty plea would have been five years in jail, but his early admissions meant the sentence could be reduced to three years and four months.

The judge also ordered confiscation of the £480 in cash.