A package containing heroin fell out of a pensioner's prosthetic leg after his on-off partner supplied the drug to an undercover police officer.
Claire Ransom, 37, supplied an officer with two bags of the Class A substance for £20.
Teesside Crown Court heard how the cop also tried to contact the mum and she messaged him to to say: "Trying to get sorted", before later saying "got nowt mate".
Prosecutor, Samuel Faulks, told the court how two officers later visited a Hartlepool property where her partner Michael Auton, 71, lived.
He said that four wraps of heroin, worth between £120 and £160, were discovered inside a silver tin in the bedroom, Teesside Live reports. The pair were arrested and a further package of heroin fell from Auton's prosthetic leg.
The prosecutor told the court in Middlesbrough how Auton said that his co-accused Ransom was a heroin user and that they had been in an on-off again relationship. He said that he had purchased £300 worth of heroin in March 2020 for her to use gradually.
In relation to Ransom, Mr Faulks said: "She admitted to dealing for 10 to 11 weeks."
Auton, of Wensleydale Street, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to purchasing heroin with intent to supply during an earlier hearing. Ransom, of the same address, previously admitted supplying a controlled drug of Class A (heroin).
Stephen Constantine, defending Ransom, told the court that an undercover officer contacted her and there was one transaction in October 2019.
He said Ransom hadn't been dealing for 10 to 11 weeks and that she had been sofa surfing. He said: "There are elements of pressure coercion. You see the mention of violence she's suffered in the past."
Constantine said Ransom has had a difficult life, for one reason or another, and she understands that she has to put her drug use behind her. She is now on a methadone reduction programme, as well as an alcohol reduction programme.
Her barrister said Ransom has had difficulty but she's worked very hard to try and put things right. He urged Recorder Aisha Wadoodi to consider giving her a suspended prison sentence.
Andrew Finlay, defending Auton, told the court how he has been out of trouble for 14 years, since 2006. He said the defendant wasn't supplying to anybody else apart from his co-accused.
Mr Finlay said: "No profit was made through what the defendant did. He feared what would happen to his co-accused during the impending lockdown."
Recorder Wadoodi told Ransom her last conviction was in 2017 and said she had offences for soliciting, which is what she did to fund her drug habit.
She told the defendant: "You knew what you were doing. You know how drugs had devastated your own life."
Recorder Wadoodi told Auton that on March 15, with with rumours of a national lockdown circulating, he paid £300 for heroin to give to Ransom gradually and would monitor how much of the drug she took.
She said: "You at first said you didn't know what the drug was before then accepting you had purchased the four wraps of heroin and you were going to give them to Ransom."
She handed them both suspended prison sentences.
Ransom was sentenced to 16 months in prison suspended for two years. She was also ordered to complete 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days, a thinking skills programme and a alcohol treatment programme.
Auton was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for 15 months.
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