A MAN who continued to be involved in the supply of heroin and cocaine in Bournemouth while on bail has been jailed for eight years.

Former London School of Economics student Ayahya Khan was told "he threw it all away" by playing a "significant role" in the drug operation.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard between October 2019 and July 2020, police found Khan had 460 grams of heroin and 70 grams of cocaine in his possession and at addresses where he was staying.

These drugs were assessed as having a street value in the region of £53,200.

Recorder Don Tait told Khan, 26, that he "perpetuated this drug supply network", adding: "You knew what you were doing and there was no excuse for it."

Prosecuting, Simon Foster said Khan's involvement in a drug dealing operation in Bournemouth first came to police's attention on October 25, 2019, when he was the passenger in a vehicle that was being followed by officers and eventually stopped.

He was taken to a police station and had packages of heroin in his underwear.

Khan, of Anjou Close, Bournemouth, was released on bail but caught the attention of police in the coming months, when he was found in possession of drugs in February and July last year. Officers also seized a total of £350.

The defendant admitted seven counts of possessing a class A drug with intent to supply, as well as offences of doing an act tending to pervert the course of justice when he gave a false name to police in Bristol in January 2017 having been detained and possessing a mobile phone at HMP Winchester while remanded in custody.

Nick Robinson, mitigating, said his client had "certainly started his criminal lifestyle in some fashion".

The barrister said the defendant felt "aggrieved that had been taken advantage of to an extent" in relation to the drugs, with him being directed by another.

"The impact of his drug use has been substantial and has led him to make a series of poor decisions," said Mr Robinson.

He added: "I simply ask for the courts mercy and ask for the shortest possible sentence."

Recorder Tait told the defendant: "I have read a lot about you. I have read a lot of references and letters from your family and you have let them all down."

The judge said "it was quite clear" Khan is an intelligent man, who had a good start in life, which included going to university at London School of Economics for 18 months, but he "threw it all away".

"You made a concious decision, in my judgement, to become involved in this drug enterprise," said Recorder Tait.

"You had two warning shots across the bow when you were arrested in October 2019 and then again in February 2020 and then you carried on."

The judge added: "I temper justice with some mercy but nevertheless the message has to go out, if it has not gone out already, that peddling class A drugs on the streets of this country and the streets of Bournemouth and surrounding areas will always attract a prison sentence of some length."