A pair of drug dealers have been ordered into rehabilitation after they were caught selling heroin to fellow addicts in Newton Abbot.

Kelly Woodward went out on a moped to deliver drugs while her partner James Martin acted as book-keeper and helped to run the operation from their home in Heathfield.

One or other of them were found with drugs, money, or other incriminating evidence three times during December 2015.

They used the cut-off ends of plastic gloves to wrap the drugs and were found with a ’bury bag’, apparently designed to enable them to hide their stash underground.

There were lists of customers with figures next to them which may have indicated at least eight people owing sums of £10 to £160, Exeter Crown Court was told.

They were also found with large amounts of money. Police seized £8,635 in the three raids and there were £23,000 unexplained cash deposits into Martin’s bank account.

Martin, aged 44, and Woodward, aged 34, both of Lower Cannon Road, Heathfield, Newton Abbot, admitted being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and the possession of criminal property.

Woodward also admitted possession of heroin with intent to supply on December 23, 2015

They were both jailed for 18 months, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to receive 12 months drug rehabilitation and 25 days’ supervision by Judge Geoffrey Mercer, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.

He told them: ’It is clear that at the time you were both heavy users and became involved in the supply of heroin. That is a very serious matter.

’This happened more than 18 months ago and I have been impressed by what I have read about you. I accept you are both determined to address your heroin problem.’

He set a timetable for an investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Mr Gordon Richings, prosecuting, said Martin was at home on his own at the time of the first raid on December 10, 2015, when £7,930 cash, the bury bag, scales, phones, dealers’ lists and two pipes were seized.

Woodward was arrested six days later on suspicion of money laundering, and foil with a brown residue and £410 cash were seized.

She was stopped again a week later in the centre of Newton Abbot while delivering heroin on a moped. She tried to swallow 14 wraps hidden in a glove but they were seized by police. They had an estimated value of £21 and she had £295 cash.

Mr Warren Robinson, defending, said a report from the addiction service Rise and a second from the probation service both concluded that the defendants had reached a point where they were desperate to address their drug problem.

Martin told the judge at an earlier hearing ’heroin has destroyed us’.