A MAN arrested after stealing a magazine from a Weymouth shop was found to have more than £750 worth of drugs on him when he was searched by police.

Lee Aaron Carr, 29, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail after admitting three charges of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply and one of possessing class B drugs with an intent to supply as well as a burglary and possessing a bladed article.

Jason Spellman, prosecuting, said Carr stole a magazine from the Londis store in Weymouth on October 16 last year and PC Tom Steadman recognised him from CCTV footage when he saw the defendant in the Park District two weeks later.

Carr, of St George’s Estate Road, Portland, was arrested and taken back to Weymouth Police Station, where Mr Spellman said he ‘became uncooperative and violent and had to be restrained’.

Mr Spellman said Carr was then searched and police found five plastic wraps containing crack cocaine with a street value of around £50 and 35 plastic packages of the same drug with a street value of £350 to £700.

They also discovered 11 plastic packages of heroin worth £220 and 16.5grams of amphetamines, with a street value estimated at £165.

Mr Spellman said Carr was charged over the drug offences on January 6 and whilst on bail on February 16 along with two others he burgled a home in Uplyme Close in Poole, stealing a jewellery box.

He was arrested that same day and found to have a folding knife on him with a three to five inch blade.

Mr Spellman said that in June 2006 Carr had been convicted of a previous offence of possessing heroin with intent to supply and had received a three-year-sentence.

Tim Shorter, mitigating, said after a troubled childhood the ‘twin evils’ of drugs and alcohol had beset much of Carr’s adult life but on his release from prison in March 2008 he had tried to make a clean break.

However, drug dealers he owed money to caught up with him and he was forced to act as a ‘runner’ for them.

Judge Roger Jarvis sentenced Carr to a total of three years for the drug offences, a further two years for the burglary and six months for possessing a bladed article.

He said: “You had an important role as a courier in facilitating the distribution of drugs to street dealers.”