A DEALER seen selling cocaine to a man in an Accrington street has been jailed for two and a half years.

Philip Cross, 47, had claimed to police he was merely shaking the man's hand, but a jury did not believe him and convicted him of supplying the Class A controlled drug.

The defendant, of Brown Birks Road, Huncoat, now has 187 criminal convictions and a judge said he had an "established and pernicious lifestyle with an entrenched anti-social attitude”.

Burnley Crown Court was told Cross, an addict of hard drugs for more than 20 years, had been jailed for four and a half years for robbery in 2006 and had been recalled on licence.

His date of release from that was next April and the new sentence started on Monday, the day it was imposed.

Recorder Alistair Webster, QC, said Cross had been found guilty on strong evidence as it had taken the jury less than 15 minutes to convict him.

The judge said the defendant had had £440 on him when searched and in his view it was not an isolated act of supply. Cross had claimed the money was not the proceeds of drug selling but was a tax rebate and benefits.

Recorder Webster said the defendant had been given community orders with drug rehabilitation before the offence.

He told him: "This all serves to reflect the fact that whatever the court has tried to deflect you from criminal activity has failed in the past."

Sarah Statham, prosecuting, said Cross was spotted supplying a £20 wrap of cocaine to the man. There was evidence of phone contact between the pair before the deal.

The drugs were in a kinder egg and the defendant had the finger of a latex glove to prevent his DNA being on the cocaine. He had the record of a drug addict and at the time had been on a community order for shoplifting.

Daniel King, for Cross, said he was a jobless drug addict of 23 years and he had previous convictions for supplying drugs.

Mr King said Cross's life so far had been blighted by the use of drugs, mainly heroin and occasionally crack cocaine.

Previous efforts to deal with the problem had been temporary or failed completely.