A man has been jailed for drug dealing activity after being caught with thousands of pounds worth of crack cocaine and heroin.

Nathaniel Stapleton, 36, of Kennet Walk, appeared before Reading Crown Court today (March 26).

The court heard that, on July 1, 2021, he was stopped by police with a large quantity of drugs in his car. These included 104 wraps of heroin, 86 wraps of crack cocaine, and a few half-grams of cocaine.

In total, the street value of the drugs was estimated at around £3,000.

Sentencing Stapleton on March 26, Judge Amjad Nawaz said police's attention was first drawn to him when he attempted to evade them.

The judge told him: "You made off - if anything was going to draw the attention of police officers, it was that."

He noted that the defendant did not have a prior history of drug dealing.

The judge said: "It's admitted this was your first foray into drug dealing, that you're not somebody that was particularly entrenched in that behaviour, and that you obtained the drugs on the basis that you were going to sell them, and the value was then going to go back to your supplier.

"But you would have profited to some extent, and you were a drug user yourself at the time."

In the end, the judge found that the quantity of drugs found on Stapleton was too large to merit anything other than a custodial sentence.

He jailed him for three years - half of which he will serve on licence.