A TEENAGER who came down to Weymouth from London to deal drugs from the home of a vulnerable addict has been jailed for three years.

Sharif Flanders, aged 19, was jailed at Dorchester Crown Court after admitting offences of possessing a class A with intent to supply and four offences of supplying class A drugs.

The court was told Flanders was involved in a practice known as “cuckooing”, that had become a major problem for police trying to tackle the supply of class A drugs in Weymouth.

He was the latest defendant to be jailed as part of Dorset Police’s Operation Energy, which targeted those supplying drugs in the town.

Prosecutor Adam Norris said: “The practice he was involved in was cuckooing, where he comes down from London and he essentially went to the house of a vulnerable drug user at an address in Weymouth to deal drugs.”

He said that police attended the home of the drug user on January 24 last year and could tell that the man was “under a certain amount of pressure”.

Mr Norris said they went into the property and found Sharif, of St John’s Park, Blackheath, London, who was searched and found to have 53 wraps of heroin in his underwear.

Flanders was arrested and bailed but admitted supplying heroin and cocaine to the drug user and also supplied heroin on two occasions to undercover officers who were operating in the Weymouth area as part of the crackdown on drugs.

Christopher Gair, mitigating, said his client had a “troubled background” that had seen him spend much of his childhood in care and said it was perhaps not surprising he had “fallen into drug misuse.

He said Flanders had run up a drug debt of £1,600 and his dealers came up with an arrangement for him to pay off some of that by coming down to Weymouth for two weeks to supply on their behalf.

Mr Gair said: “He is in effect a runner for those further up the chain.”

Judge Jonathan Fuller said he had to take into account the defendant’s youth as he sentenced Flanders to three years in prison.

He told the defendant: “Drug dealing in this area had a marked effect on the community, so much so the police had to launch this operation.

“You may not have been a prime mover but you were a willing participant.”