A MAN arrested on an Evesham car park with a pocketful of drugs claimed that a friend had given him them to throw away, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Dean Smith said he had accepted nearly £1,000 worth of heroin and crack cocaine from Dylan Morgan to help him kick a drugs habit.

Smith, aged 23, of Rynal Place, Evesham, denied having the drugs intending to supply them to another person.

But he was convicted on a 10-2 majority verdict after a jury was out for nearly four hours. He was remanded on bail for sentence.

Smith was arrested at 7.25pm on Friday, April 19, last year, said Malcolm Parkes, prosecuting. The potential street value of the drugs was £960.

Smith said he had forgotten he had the drugs after being told that his mother was seriously ill and had been taken to hospital.

He had met Dylan Morgan by chance and was trying to help him by getting rid of the drugs.

He did not know how much they were worth because he had never used class A drugs himself.

He denied that he was hanging on to the drugs and waiting for the chance to deliver them to someone else.

Dylan Morgan, called by the defence, was warned by Judge John Cavell that he need not answer questions which might incriminate him.

He told the jury that he was addicted to heroin and cocaine and would have ended up taking the drugs himself if he had not handed them to Smith.

He denied he was lying to help a friend.

The judge said the prosecution accepted that Smith, father of a two-year-old daughter, was a courier rather than a dealer, but even couriers of hard drugs went to custody, he warned.