A STREET dealer of heroin and cocaine who supplied undercover police has been jailed for 40 months.

Raja Riaz, 20, came from a respectable and religious family and should have been celebrating the last day of Ramadan, not going to jail for pushing hard drugs, Burnley Crown Court heard.

But the court was told he was a crack cocaine user and was in debt to his dealer.

Judge Norman Wright told the defendant: "Look what you have become. Look at the shame you have brought not just to yourself but to your family who are here to witness this."

Riaz, of Thursden Place, Nelson, admitted three charges of supply-ing heroin and one of being conce-rned in the supply of cocaine, in May and June. He was sent to a Young Offenders' Institution.

The court was told the defendant, caught out under Operation Nimrod, when undercover police posed as Irish travellers in Nelson and Brierfield, had previous convictions, but none for drugs.

Rukhshanda Hussain, defending, handed the judge letters from neighbours, teachers, the local mosque and Hussain's family. Mr Hussain said his client had associ-ated with the wrong people and became addicted to crack cocaine.

He supplied small amounts to undercover officers, had no stock of drugs himself and was dealing on instructions from his supplier.