Police officers who stopped a speeding car found high grade heroin with a street value of more than £1,300 under the driver's seat, a Court heard.

Bradford Crown Court was told yesterday how the officers' attention was drawn to a Ford Escort seen travelling at speed in the Woodhouse Grove area of Keighley in June.

Prosecutor Robert Blantern said the car, driven by banned driver Alan Feather, later stopped in Hainsworth Wood Terrace and he and another man walked away.

The men were called back and, when officers searched the car, they discovered a lozenge-shaped package which was later found to contain 26.2 grams of 68 per cent pure heroin with a street value of £1,310.

Feather, 30, of Gladstone Street, Keighley, denied any knowledge of the drugs, but when he appearerd in court last month, he pleaded guilty to charges of possessing the heroin with intent to supply, driving while disqualified and without insurance.

The court heard Feather was a heroin user himself and had previous convictions for possessing drugs and supplying a Class C drug.

Judge Robert Bartfield jailed him for four years on the drugs offence with a concurrent sentence of three months for driving while banned. He also disqualified him from driving for two years.

He told Feather: "What you do to yourself with heroin is one thing, but were you to supply it to others for profit, then you are doing something which causes those other persons untold damage. In this case, the amount involved was substantial and you will understand that for the commercial supply of substantial quantities of heroin, there has to be a long prison sentence.

"I want to make it clear to you and everybody else that the courts will continue to pass long, deterrent sentences to do everything they can to stamp out the curse of heroin and the addiction to it."

Feather's barrister, Gerald Hendron described him as a man of limited capabilities following a head injury and said he could be distinguished from the "sophisticated schemer" who habitually supplied drugs.