A DRUG dealer thanked a judge for probably saving his life - moments after he was locked up for four years.

Judge Andrew Stubbs QC said the court had to “stop this pernicious trade in life-ruining drugs” in York as he jailed Stephen James Garnett - adding he was stopping the defendant from “slowly but surely” killing himself.

Garnett, 40, sold heroin on city centre streets while CCTV operators watched, York Crown Court heard.

The jury saw film of Garnett handing over wraps of the drug and receiving money in exchange.

Below is some of the CCTV showing Garnett, on the right, making a drug deal in Goodramgate. 

Operators tracked Garnett from Kings Square to Goodramgate, then contacted police and showed them the CCTV footage, the court heard.

When police arrested Garnett a couple of hours after the street deals, he had 11 wraps of heroin hidden in his pants and £150 in cash on him.

He claimed from the witness box that the two meetings in Kings Square and Goodramgate were normal, wholly legal, exchanges between homeless people.

The heroin was only for him and the money was a combination of his state benefits and begging, he claimed.

But the jury convicted him unanimously of possessing 11 wraps of heroin with intent to supply to others.

Garnett, of no fixed address, had denied the charge, but admitted a charge of possessing cannabis found on him at his arrest.

Judge Andrew Stubbs QC told him: “What the court has to try to do is stop this pernicious trade in life-ruining drugs in the city of York and also stop you from slowly but surely killing yourself by the drugs you carry on taking.”

He jailed Garnett for four years and confiscated the £150.

As he was taken down to the court cells, Garnett called out: “Probably saved my life actually, thanks a lot.”

Unknown to the jury, the judge had remanded Garnett in custody during the trial to prevent him taking heroin after seeing the state he was in at the start of the trial. Garnett had been on bail until then.

The judge told Garnett the difference in his appearance on the film, which was taken on the evening of May 10, 2017, and today showed how he had continued to “poison yourself with the drugs you take and the drink you take to oblivion. You have an illness - you are addicted to heroin.”