A DRUG-DEALER is facing jail after being found guilty of possessing more than £24,000 worth of heroin.

Philip Andrew Wishart, 47, was convicted at York Crown Court of possessing 245 grams of the class A drug with intent to supply.

Wishart, of St Mary’s Avenue in Hemingbrough, near Selby, denied planning to sell the heroin and said he was stockpiling it for his own use.

The court heard Wishart was a heroin user who had been prescribed methodone to kick the habit but planned his own detoxification instead, using one gram a day to wean himself off.

Alan Mitcheson, prosecuting, said Wishart was seen driving erratically by an off-duty police officer on the A64 on August 20 last year. The officer phoned colleagues, and Wishart was stopped near Tadcaster.

Police believed Wishart was under the influence of drugs, and found in the car a package containing 245g of powder, which was later found to be heroin.

Wishart told officers he had been to Bradford and paid £1,500 for the package, which he believed was only 125g, but had been given another £1,500-worth of the drug on credit, to be paid at a later date, and insisted he intended to use the drugs to wean himself off heroin.

Mr Mitcheson said: “If it was, as he said, his supplier was not only naive, but extremely generous indeed.

“He would say that, wouldn’t he? His explanation doesn’t make sense, it is not credible. It almost beggars belief.”

Police said the heroin was about seven per cent pure, but could still have a street value of £24,500.

For Wishart, Mark Partridge said his client accepted he was in possession of the drug having travelled to Bradford to pick it up, but he denied he would supply anyone else. He said: “This was a single lump of heroin.

“Whether he would realise its value is, in my submission, neither here nor there. He thought he had bought 125g.

“He is a complex and intricate character, someone who has had a career with an interest in cars, knows a lot about cars, supplied cars for the film industry.

“He works, albeit in the black market, fitting cars up, getting them on the road, and gets paid cash in hand. He is not your typical heroin user.”

The jury took 35 minutes to find Wishart guilty, and he was released on bail ahead of sentencing next month.