A young father from a "good family" was today starting five years in jail after police uncovered his £100-a-day heroin dealing.

Ian Gilmore, prosecuting at York Crown Court, said drug detectives forced their way into Paul Andrew Taylor's flat in Sowerby Road, Acomb, in March last year, and found £700 of heroin in two places, as well as scales and debtor lists.

Taylor, 21, told police he was selling £100 of the drug a day to finance his own £150-a-day habit. Released on bail, Taylor was caught two months later carrying 33 wraps of heroin in King's Square, York. He had no previous convictions.

Exactly one week after becoming a father, Taylor stood in the dock at York Crown Court as Judge Peter Charlesworth told him: "The spreading of heroin in the streets of York is a very, very serious offence."

The judge said of the heroin Taylor was carrying: "You were going to leave this in a public place on a May day for a dealer to pick up and no doubt distribute further to people in York. The sentence really should be doubled."

But he took into account Taylor's guilty plea to two offences of possessing heroin with intent, one of possessing heroin and one of handling a stolen mountain bike. He also took into account the way Taylor had kicked his own drug habit. Earlier, the judge had said: "This is a case of a young man, good parents, good home, good prospects, who had a decent job, who has thrown it all away by his addiction to heroin. Ultimately, having experimented with all the other drugs to begin with, he then became addicted in the grip of this evil drug that destroys lives, causes misery and unhappiness, illness and even death. He was heavily involved in the heroin scene in York last year."

Taylor's father, Alan, who, like his mother, was in court, said afterwards: "For a first conviction it was harsh."

For Taylor, Geraldine Kelly said he had agreed to act as a courier in May because he was desperate to get methadone and had not known about the heroin in the carrier bag.

He was now off drugs and his seven months in custody on remand had been a great shock to him.

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