A BARROW drug dealer has been jailed for five years after a court heard he stashed  class A, B and C drugs on  a children’s climbing frame.

Vincent Pickering admitted the stock was his after Cumbria police set drugs dogs out to hunt for his stash at a house. Earlier that day officers had visited Pickering’s home in Longway, Barrow, to arrest his partner for an unrelated matter.

But when they found traces of drugs at the property the woman said they belonged to the 37-year-old and officers secured a warrant to search another property in Ramsden Street.

Preston Crown Court heard police raided the house at 12.15 am on July 30 to discover Pickering in one room and a number of children sleeping at the house.

A drugs dog picked up the scent at the rear of the property and led officers to a climbing frame propped against a wall, which had a bag hanging from it.

Recorder Simon Medland, sentencing, said: "The bag on the climbing frame was the shop where he stocked his trade."

The bag - which Pickering admitted was his - contained 90 ecstasy tablets, worth £190; two 2oz packages of amphetamine with a street value of £1120, along with a separate packages of amphetamine valued at £190; three 0.5oz bags of cannabis worth £50 - £100 each and a supply of diazepam. It also contained electric scales and Pickering had £515 cash on him.

The court heard Pickering has a history of selling drugs dating back to the early 2000s. In 2001 he was jailed for three years for supplying ecstasy, in 2005 he was convicted of possession of amphetamines with intent to supply, in 2007 he was jailed for 68 months for dealing ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis and in 2011 he was handed a suspended sentence for possession of class B and C drugs with intent. Now he faces a further five and a half years in prison for the same offence.

The judge said: “You were in Barrow when this happened. “Barrow is a town where work is at a premium and many people find it difficult to get a job through lack of opportunity.

“Particularly in isolated and vulnerable communities like that, drugs eat into people’s lives and ruin society.

“They corrode society and prevent people from living a life on the straight and narrow.

“You are 37 and you had the good sense to admit at the time the police found the drugs and when you were asked in court that you were guilty.”