A ‘NAIVE idiot’ who turned to dealing heroin when he found himself penniless on leaving prison was jailed for two years.

Stuart Trinder, who does not use drugs, was caught with thousands of pounds worth of the Class A substance when police raided his home in November last year.

But despite the 20-year-old becoming a father the day before he appeared for sentence a judge said he had to jail him.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how police executing a search warrant at his house found 15 wraps prepared for street dealing and six larger amounts, which had been yet to be split up.

Also in the house officers found scales, about £700 in cash, mobile phones and bits of torn plastic bags used for wrapping drug deals.

On the phones she said a message reading ‘I have got drugs for sale’ had been sent out to 39 people.

Miss Squire said the drugs recovered weighed 45 grams and if split to street deals could be worth £3,720.

The court heard the purity was very strong at 58 per cent, meaning they could have been cut two or three times and still sold on the street, doubling or tripling their value.

Trinder, of Albany Close, Park North, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin with intent to supply.

The court heard he admitted it on the basis that he had not bagged up the drugs and had been given the phone with contacts on by someone else.

He was jailed for four months in May last year after failing to complete a suspended sentence for two counts of actual bodily harm.

In that incident he fired off a volley of homophobic abuse at one of his victims as he punched and kicked him on the ground before attacking a second man who tried to stop him.

Rob Ross, defending, said: “He is someone who didn’t really give any great thought to what he was doing.

“He isn’t the usual sort of person who gets involved in drugs. He was, and I don’t think he will mind me saying this, a naive idiot.

“Knowing someone, who knew he had just got out of prison and was short of money, got him involved in holding drugs and passing money back.

“In other words someone who insulates himself quite nicely and uses my client as an Aunt Sally.

“But the person above him was not very bright as you very rarely see 58 per cent in street deals. This drug could have been cut down at least two or three times.

“There is an element of naivety. The simple reason he did it was it was an easy way of getting quick money and he didn’t get much of that because it was taken by the police.”

He said he was still living at home with his parents and had now been offered the chance of work at a barber’s shop, should he keep his liberty.

Judge Tim Mousley QC said: “You were in possession of a significantly large quantity of heroin and your involvement was in commercial dealing: it was commercial dealing at a street level.

“You were motivated by financial gain and you had some awareness of the scale of operation that you were involved in.”

As well as jailing him for two years he also ordered the confiscation and destruction of the drugs and paraphernalia and the forfeiture of the money.