A dealer was found with £3,000-worth of heroin and crack cocaine and a drug dealing kit when stopped by police in Dereham, a court heard.

Ola Alexander, 26, dropped a bag he was carrying containing the drugs when stopped in a car park on Norwich Road, Dereham, Norwich Crown Court heard.

Richard Potts, prosecuting, said he tried to run off but was arrested by officers,

The court heard that, as well as the drugs, there were items used for drug deals including scales and a mobile phone along with a train ticket from London.

Mr Potts added that it was a typical county lines operation and said the value put on the drugs was just under £3,000.

Mr Potts said police had been keeping watch in that area of Dereham following reports about suspected drug dealing.

Alexander, from London, admitted possession of the drugs with intent to supply on July 12 2019.

The court heard it was his third conviction for dealing drugs and he could have faced an automatic seven-year sentence.

However Judge Katharine Moore jailed Alexander for five-and-half-years or - as said in court - 2,045 days.

Sentencing him, Judge Moore said that he had been caught with the drugs and what was clearly a drug-dealing kit.

She warned him that if he continued to carry on being involved in drug dealing his sentences would only get longer.

"It is vital you do all you can now to distance yourself from everything that has drawn you into this type of offending."

She said he was young enough to turn his life around and said: "You really need to begin now."

Jon Harrison, for Alexander, said that it was very sad and worrying that Alexander had become involved in drugs yet again, adding: "He has not yet learned a lesson."

He said that Alexander had been put under some pressure to come to Norfolk with the drugs and said he had only been here for a day when he was arrested.

"He was sent to a place he has never heard of before."

Mr Harrison added: "If he carries on this offending he faces a very sad existence."

He added: "It is a terrible bleak outlook."

He said that Alexander deserved credit for his guilty plea, which had been offered at the first opportunity.