A HOMELESS addict who turned drug dealer to fund his habit has been jailed after being busted by undercover officers.

Wayne Delacy, 41, lived on the streets of Brighton when he was persuaded to deal heroin and crack cocaine in return for drugs to feed his addiction.

But he was caught out in a police sting when he sold drugs to an undercover officer.

The drug dealer was sent to jail for four years when he appeared at Lewes Crown Court on Tuesday.

The court heard Delacy was lured into the trap after officers discovered a phone number used to distribute drugs in Brighton.

Users would ring the hotline to order crack cocaine and heroin, which would then be delivered by a runner.

On December 30 last year an undercover officer rang the drugs number and was met by Delacy in Providence Place, Brighton, near London Road.

Kris Belevy, prosecuting, said: “The officer followed him into an alleyway. The defendant unzipped a plastic wallet containing numerous wraps of drugs.”

Delacey handed over two wraps of heroin and some crack cocaine for £25 and was then arrested.

In a police interview the dealer said he had fallen back into drugs having been released from a two-year stretch in prison that year for drug dealing.

Siobhan Lawson, defending, said on his release in October 2016, Delacy fell back into drugs when he was made homeless from emergency accommodation after just two weeks.

He started begging at Brighton Station.

She said: “He was initially heroin free after his release but due to homelessness relapsed and met an acquaintance dealing drugs who persuaded him to start selling himself.

“He had been working with a support worker to stay drug free and had he not lost his accommodation, through no fault of his own, he is certain he would not have relapsed.”

Delacey of Grand Parade, Brighton, pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying a controlled drug of class A.

He was previously convicted of supplying class A drugs in July 2015, for which he was imprisoned for two years.

Judge Christine Laing QC spared Delacy the suggested minimum sentence of at least seven years in prison for a third class A drug offence.

He was given four years for each charge to run concurrently.

She said: “You are now 41. It is truly time to take responsibility for where your life goes from here.

“I have sympathy for victims of drug addiction but no sympathy for those who supply drugs to feed other people’s addictions.

“I ought to be imposing a minimum sentence of seven years, but I’m not going to as it would be unjust in the circumstances.

“I don’t think the sentencing guidelines were created in mind to consider addicts who run drugs to feed their own addiction.

“You have also attempted to deal with your addiction, although not successfully.

“It seems to me if you continue to deal with it in prison, I don’t want to make your sentence so long you feel you have no hope.

“But I must send a message to drug dealers they can not use people like you and you have to say no.”

Although the amount of drugs and value was not significantly large in this case, the sentencing is part of a series resulting from a six-month long operation carried out by officers from Brighton and Hove Police’s Community Investigation Team into the supply of drugs into the city.