Car dealer Mark Hickman - who was bludgeoned to death in a country lane - may have been one of Yorkshire's biggest heroin dealers, a Court heard.

Hickman, whose body was found last February in Bridge Lane, Shelf, supplied heroin by the kilogram, David Robson, QC for the defence, told Leeds Crown Court.

Mr Robson said: "Mark Hickman was supplying by the kilogram, he must have been one of the biggest heroin dealers in Yorkshire."

Hickman's friend Mick Webster said he had sold about half a kilo of the drug a week.

Mr Webster, a father-of-two from Keighley, said he had passed on the drug business to Mr Hickman, 32, after considering his responsibilities to his wife and children.

Mr Webster admitted he had made profits of around £1,800 a week.

Hickman's battered body was found with severe facial and head fractures thought to have been caused by a crowbar or baseball bat. His throat was cut.

David Deakin, 52, of First Avenue, Windy Bank, Cleckheaton, and his two stepsons, Mark Deakin, 30, also of First Avenue, and David Deakin junior, 25, all deny murdering Mr Hickman, of Whin Knoll Avenue, Keighley, on February 13 last year. Mr Webster said he had dealt drugs with Mr Hickman in 1994 and 1995. In 1995 he passed his operation to Mr Hickman. The business involved picking up packages of heroin left by unknown suppliers in the hills around Keighley and selling the drug on.

Mr Hickman's friend Rachel Roberts today told how he left her with more than £15,000 in cash and returned on the day he was killed to get some money. Mr Hickman, 32, went to Mrs Roberts' Keighley home and took between £4,000 and £5,000.

Mrs Roberts said at first that she thought there was about £12,000 in a plastic bag but under cross examination she admitted there could have been between £15,000 and £17,000.

The court earlier heard Mr Hickman had gone to Shelf with £4,000 for the Deakins to "sort out" a former business partner, Richard Mears. Mr Webster said Mr Hickman feared for his life after Mr Mears discovered he was having an affair with his wife.

The trial continues.

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