A man caught street dealing with £200 of Drugs on him has been jailed for seven years under the “three strikes” law.

Police yesterday warned that the sentence meted out to Arshad Khan should serve as a lesson to persistent small-time pedlars of heroin and cocaine.

Khan, 40, of Salt Street, Manningham , was selling wraps of Class A drugs on Bradford streets to fund his own addiction.

He was forced into the trade to pay off debts to his own drug suppliers and had not made much, if any, money, his barrister Khadim Al’Hassan told Bradford Crown Court .

The court heard it was Khan’s third conviction for dealing in Class A drugs.

After the case, Sergeant Kevin Taylor, of the Bradford Drugs Team, said: “We are working extremely hard to remove individuals such as Khan from our communities who peddle misery on our streets to the detriment of local residents.

“The police and the courts take an extremely dim view of those involved in drugs and I am happy to see that this man will now serve a considerable period behind bars. He was found with a relatively small amount of Class A drugs. However, the length of this sentence highlights the outcome people will face who persist in this kind of activity.”

In March last year Khan was jailed for 18 months for conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine. He was netted in a police crackdown on street dealers in the Girlington area of Bradford.

On Thursday, he was again locked up after pleading guilty to possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply on November 7 last year.

The court heard he was seen by the police driving in Oak Lane, Manningham, Bradford, at 5.20pm. He was followed to Rochester Street where officers saw him throw bags out of the car window. They contained 16 wraps of heroin and 11 wraps of crack cocaine, with a street value of little more than £200.

Mr Al’Hassan said Khan’s life was in disarray since a serious road accident. He was the father of two children and his partner was standing by him.