A MAN who started using cannabis to ease the pain of a sport injury, and went on to become a drug dealer, has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Abdi Hagar, of Beach Road, Clacton, dropped out of his media studies course at Middlesex University when he was offered a job with Mirror Group Newspapers.

But a sports injury meant he had to give up work, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

The 25-year-old admitted possessing 7.34g of crack cocaine worth £308 with intent to supply, possessing 25.8g of heroin worth £1,264, with intent to supply, and possessing cannabis.

Lynne Shirley, prosecuting, said police called at Hagar’s bedsit in Beach Road on an unrelated matter last year and heard rustling from inside and the window opening.

Hagar let them in and police found a package under the window that contained crack cocaine and heroin.

Police also found a bank receipt for £2,615 in a toilet roll on top of the wardrobe, two sets of scales and three mobile phones.

Mrs Shirley said one had text messages that referred to “light”, which is slang for cocaine, and “B”, slang for brown or heroin.

Ramiz Gursoy, mitigating, said Hagar began dealing in Class A drugs to help support his mother and six siblings.

Mr Gursoy said the family had fled war-torn Somalia in 1992, leaving his father behind.

He said: “He was not part of a sophisticated gang, he was just doing it on his own, buying in bulk and selling in small amounts.”

Judge Rodger Hayward Smith QC told Hagar he was intelligent, of previous good character and not an addict. The amount of drugs was comparatively small, but not trivial, and was far too serious for anything other than prison.

He jailed him for four-and-a-half years on each Class A offence, plus three months for the cannabis, all to run concurrently.