A STREET dealer was found with cocaine after being searched by police who noticed he was trying to avoid their attention.

Connor Mitchell, 26, of Acre Rise in Baildon, was stopped on the afternoon of January 9, 2023, by officers who discovered he was carrying 10 grip seal bags of the drug as well as £100 in cash and mobile phones containing messages relating to drug deals.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Mitchell was “clearly running his own business supplying directly to users.”

At the time he was on bail for driving offences.

The court heard that Mitchell started using cocaine during “a period of turmoil” in his life following multiple bereavements.

He began selling the drug, using his own phone and name, to help pay off a debt to a friend.

Sentencing Mitchell to two years imprisonment suspended for two years, His Honour Judge Colin Burn described him as “a one-man band” who was selling drugs to a “relatively small” circle of people.

He said there was no evidence to show that Mitchell was part of a wider drug operation.

He sentenced Mitchell to two years imprisonment suspended for two years, ordered him to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work, and to undertake 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days plus a 26-day Thinking Skills programme.

He will also be electronically tagged for six months.