DRUG-dealing twins are today serving a combined total 11 years in jail, after their "double trouble" plot failed.

Identical pair Kevin and Adrian MacLean tried to convince a jury that the man who sold heroin four times to an undercover police officer was Kevin.

They were bidding to save Adrian from a seven-year prison term.

But after hearing and seeing both York twins, the jury decided that Adrian had been the dealer and convicted him of four charges of supplying heroin.

Kevin was already serving a four-year prison sentence for other drug dealing.

Prosecutor Alan Mitcheson told Bradford Crown Court that Adrian MacLean had been on parole from a sentence for an earlier offence of drug trafficking at the time and had two other previous convictions for drug dealing.

"The law says that anyone who has got three convictions (for heroin dealing) will serve a minimum of seven years," Judge Shaun Spencer QC told Adrian MacLean, after the jury's verdicts.

"You have and you will."

He jailed Adrian MacLean for seven years on each of the four supplying heroin charges the 43-year-old twin, of no fixed address, had denied.

During the four-day trial, the jury heard that Kevin MacLean ran a drugs ring from his home in Aberford House, The Groves, selling heroin on the streets of York early last year. But it was targeted by a major undercover police sting and five ring members, including both brothers, were arrested.

Adrian had been released from prison just 20 days before he made his first deal on January 25 with the undercover police officer known only as "Jono".

He made three more deals between January 30 and February 20, selling a £10 wrap on each occasion. He had 129 previous convictions.

"Jono" told the jury he could distinguish between the twins because Adrian had the letters "LUFC" tattooed on his hand and Kevin did not.

Kevin claimed that he masqueraded as Adrian for four deals by inking the four letters on his hand.

He admitted dealing with "Jono" without the four letters on his hand on other occasions during the same period.

For Adrian MacLean, Nicholas Barker urged the judge not to give him more than the minimum seven-year term.

"It is a very draconian piece of legislation and clearly intended to be so," he said.

The judge said it meant Adrian's sentence was heavier than the offence merited.