A 48-year-old Stourbridge man caught with nearly £11,000 worth of drugs including 1,988 ecstasy tablets has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Police officers found the tablets together with 413 grammes of amphetamines and 135 grammes of cannabis when they raided the home of David Ashford.

The officers also recovered £1,665 in cash from Ashford who, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told, had been hooked on drugs for 30 years.

They found the cannabis valued at £771 in a kitchen cupboard and the amphetamines worth £4,132 in a freezer compartment.

The ecstasy tablets worth £5,964 were in a mobile plastic shed in the garden.

When questioned Ashford said he had the cannabis and amphetamines for his personal use but he stressed he was looking after the tablets for someone else.

Ashford, of Western Road, admitted three charges of possessing the controlled drugs with intent to steal and he was told by Recorder Stephen Eyre only a substantial prison sentence was appropriate.

Nicholas Smith, defending, said Ashford was “rather too old to be committing this sort of offence, he has had a lifetime of drug use but mercifully there has been no heroin or cocaine.”

On Wednesday September 24, Mr Smith told the court: “He accepts this is all his own fault. He has been unable to resolve his drug habit - drugs have taken over his life.”

He added Ashford was acting as a “custodian” for the ecstasy tablets and said: “What he should have done was flush them down the toilet. But that would have left him with a drug debt.”

Howard Searle, prosecuting, said Ashford had previous convictions for possessing drugs with intent to supply.