Cousins are jailed

Michael Mooney, 20, of no fixed abode, had previously pleaded guilty to four charges of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply and driving without a licence and insurance.

Paul Hughes, 20, of The Esplanade, Weymouth, had pleaded guilty to two counts of the same drugs charge.

Dorchester Crown Court was told how the men were arrested after police stopped them in a car in Buxton Road, Weymouth, earlier this year.

Mooney was searched and a set of keys for a hotel room on Portland found.

Inside the room police found heroin and cocaine with a combined street value of £1,325.

Joanna Morrissey, prosecuting, said: "In that room they found 16 small wraps of a brown powder and five small wraps of another powder."

She said both defendants claimed the drugs were theirs in interview.

Miss Morrissey said: "Mooney accepted that he would be selling the drugs.

"He went further and said he had been doing this for the last seven months since he moved to Dorset from Liverpool.

"He said he was doing it to repay money he owed someone."

Michael Tomlinson, mitigating for Mooney, said his client had been put under pressure to repay a debt of thousands.

He said: "He is from a deprived background - from a sink estate' as they call it.

"He is from a large family. It must be a factor that a lack of education has contributed to these offences."

Nicholas Tucker, mitigating for Hughes, said his client had a two-year-old daughter.

He said: "He is not unintelligent and, given the motivation, he could make something of himself.

"His greatest regret is that he won't be around for the most formative years of his child's life."

Judge Roger Jarvis told the defendants: "I have a feeling that in other circumstances you probably have something positive to offer the community.

"One you finish this sentence you need to reflect upon your lifestyle."

He gave Mooney a three-and-a-half year prison sentence and Hughes a three-year sentence.