A PAIR of class A drug dealers who were caught in Chester – one with suspected drugs up his own anus – have been jailed.

Steven James Anstey, 54, of no fixed abode and Jamie Lally, 26, of Herbert Taylor Close, Liverpool, both had several drug-related offences on their criminal record before police came to execute a search warrant at a Lorne Street house on December 9, 2020.

Appearing at Chester Crown Court via videolink and wearing face masks from HMP Altcourse on Thursday, January 14, Anstey was jailed for 49 months and Lally for 45 months by judge David O'Mahony.

Both had pleaded guilty at an earlier Chester Crown Court hearing to possessing with intent to supply cocaine and heroin.

Prosecuting, Ryan Rothwell said as police were executing the drugs warrant on Lorne Street, Anstey left the house and tried to escape on his bicycle.

An officer got hold of him and there was a struggle, before Anstey broke free and rode away, discarding a package.

One package contained two mobile telephones and £30 in cash, while a second identical-looking package was discovered on the canal towpath, containing 11 wraps of heroin and 12 wraps of cocaine valued at £230.

Anstey was detained at the car park of Telford's Warehouse.

Police forced entry into the Lorne Street house and Lally was found with a mobile phone that officers said was constantly ringing and £465.90 in cash.

A strip search was carried out and brown and white wraps were concealed up Lally's anus.

Both defendants gave a no comment interview.

Anstey had 21 previous convictions for 38 offences, seven of which were drug-related in the past 25 years and included possession with intent to supply cannabis in 1995 and possession with intent to supply cocaine and heroin in August 2017, the latter for which he received a five-year prison sentence, meaning his latest offending was carried out while he was on licence.

Lally had five previous convictions for nine offences, including five drugs-related offences, including being concerned in the supply of heroin in 2016, for which he received a four-year jail term in Scotland.

Defending Anstey, Kay Driver said the defendant was delivering drugs on his bike to reduce the drug debt he had to his suppliers.

There was a level of pressure exerted on him to the effect that he felt he had no option.

He had been addicted to class A drugs since 2013.

He had come from a good family and said he had fallen into "the wrong crowd", and at the time of the offending was homeless and struggling with his addiction.

That day he had been hopeful of an offer of stable accommodation by staying at a hotel, but the call did not come through that day and Anstey "felt under pressure".

Current Covid conditions in prison meant it was a "nervous time" in custody and although he was seeking help for his drug addiction, due to the current circumstances there was no help available for him.

However, he was hopeful of seeing his parents again in the future.

Brendan Carville, defending Lally, said the defendant had been sharing his prison cell with someone who had tested positive for Covid, which had forced him to isolate.

He accepted the folly of the situation he had put himself in but believed it was serious to be sharing a cell with someone with a potentially life-threatening disease.

He had had a difficult background and "fell into bad company", which led to him dealing drugs in Edinburgh.

When out of prison, he had sought work and had got on to an apprenticeship in Liverpool. but the Covid crisis happened and he was out of work, and then people in Scotland contacted him, believing he still owed them.