A MAN caught storing almost a kilo of Class A drugs valued at £56,000 has been jailed for two years.

Kaya Peters was pressured into “safe-housing” the heroin and cocaine at his home in after his dealer called in an £800 cannabis debt.

Peters, 30, a father of four, pleaded guilty to three offences of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs dating from September 29, 2018.

Prosecutor Anthony Moore told the Crown Court that when the police arrived to search the house, Peters showed them where the heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine was being kept.

Officers recovered the stash from a chest of drawers in his bedroom along with dealer bags, scales, phones and £130 in cash.

Peters was also holding on to the key of an Audi car for someone he refused to name.

He said that none of the drugs or the paraphernalia were his. He was storing them for others because he had run up the debt.

A half-kilo block of heroin found at the house had a street value of £25,000. More packages of the drug were seized, along with 88 deals of crack cocaine and 11 packages of cocaine with a street value of £26,700.

Peters, of Khalaq Court, Bradford, told the police he was a heavy user of cannabis and became custodian of the drugs because he owed money to his dealer.

His barrister, Shufqat Khan, said he began smoking cannabis as a coping mechanism for the problems in his life.

He had no previous convictions for drugs offences and only one conviction for a dissimilar matter.

There had been an element of pressure to persuade him to store the drugs.

Mr Khan said the delay of more than two years in bringing the case to sentence was unjustifiable.

Peters had since cut right down on his cannabis use and he was a valued voluntary worker.

He had been his mother’s carer since he was 16 and an immediate prison sentence would have a harmful impact on others.

“He is genuinely sorry and disgusted with himself,” Mr Khan said.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Richard Mansell QC, hit out at the “unconscionable and totally unacceptable delay” in bringing the case to sentence.

Peters had shown the police where the drugs were, admitted they were his and pleaded guilty to the offences.

Judge Mansell said he was “at the very bottom of the pyramid in this evil trade” but a clear message must go out that drug dealing offences would not be tolerated by the courts.