A drug dealer, who traded on the streets of Bradford nine years apart after fleeing to Pakistan in between, was today sentenced to seven-and-a-half years imprisonment.

Mohammed Umer Anwar, 31, failed to surrender to bail in January, 2001 and was not arrested on warrant until last November, prosecutor Ian Howard told Bradford Crown Court.

Mr Howard said that in December 1999, Anwar collected car registration plates from a garage, knowing they were to be put on a stolen vehicle.

The stolen Land Rover Freelander was found with false plates in a Bradford workshop the following month.

The prosecutor said that Anwar, of Devonshire Terrace, Manningham, Bradford, was involved in three allegations of supplying class A drugs and one of possession with intent in June and, July 2000.

Police observed a drug deal after a user left a property in Otley Road. Anwar tried to escape in a Honda car, but collided with two parked cars and a wall. He continued to drive along a pavement, scraping a wall, before he was detained.

In November, 2009, he was caught supplying heroin and crack cocaine to a user from a Vauxhall Vectra car. He reversed into a police car in a failed bid to escape.

Anwar’s barrister, Tahir Khan, said he led a double life.

On the one hand he had a stable job as a mechanic supporting his wife and young family, on the other he was in the grip of heroin addiction, selling drugs to fund his addiction and pay off a debt to his dealer.

Mr Khan admitted his client had been at large for nine years but said he did not represent a danger.

The judge, Recorder Ian Harris, sentencing him to a total of seven-and-a-half years for all offences, said Anwar came from a decent family but knew exactly what he was doing. He said drugs was an evil trade and a curse to society.