A CONVICTED drug dealer caught with a substantial stash of heroin and crack cocaine when he was on the run from the police has been jailed for seven years.

Umbar Hussain, 21, was "holed up" in the Campanile Hotel, off the M606 at Roydsale Way, Bradford, when drugs squad officers swooped to execute a warrant.

Hussain, of Hedge Way, Allerton, Bradford, had been convicted by a jury in his absence a fortnight earlier of possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply and possession of cash as criminal property.

The trial at Bradford Crown Court had gone ahead without him when he failed to turn up for a second time and said "f*** off" when his solicitors warned him to attend.

The jury found him guilty of street dealing heroin and crack cocaine on Bradford's Lumb Lane on November 19, 2014.

Hussain had £98 in cash on him and a total of 72 wraps of Class A drugs tucked into the waistband of his trouser when police stopped a Mitsubishi Shogun.

The high purity drugs found on Hussain were worth £465.

After the verdicts, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told the jury: "His solicitors told him 'look, get down here today' and he told them to f*** off. I took that as a clear and positive intention that he did not want to turn up."

Judge Durham Hall issued a warrant not backed for bail.

Yesterday, Hussain was sentenced for those offences, along with possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, and possession of criminal property, at the hotel on November 4 last year.

Prosecutor Camille Morland said the offences put Hussain in breach of an eight month sentence of detention, suspended for two years, for dangerous driving imposed at the crown court in February, 2014.

Miss Morland said Hussain was on the run when the police traced him to the hotel.

They seized £2,952 from his room, along with 557 wraps of heroin and 108 wraps of crack cocaine, worth a total of £3,595.

Hussain's phone contained text evidence of drug dealing.

He was remanded in custody until the sentencing hearing.

Miss Morland said Hussain had a 2011 conviction for possession of cannabis with intent to supply.

His barrister, Nick Worsley, said Hussain's cannabis habit led him on to Class A drugs. He ran up a debt and was put to work by his supplier selling drugs to pay it back.

Hussain went to ground and failed to show for his trial partly because he was afraid and partly because he was trying unsuccessfully to save his relationship.

"Knowing the pressures that were on him at the time, he hid his head in the sand," Mr Worsley said.

He added: "He is thought well of by those in the community and is truly sorry for what he has done."

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told Hussain: "People in Bradford who deal Class A drugs will find themselves going to imprisonment for a significant time."

He jailed Hussain for six and a half years for the drugs offences and activated six months of the suspended sentence.