A DRUG dealer fled onto the roof naked and tried to eat his stash of cannabis and cocaine when police raided his home.

Mitchell Hannis was in bed when officers executed a search warrant at the flat in Torquay which he was using as a base for his drug dealing and he didn’t have time to dress as he fled.

Police saw him trying to eat cannabis and throwing drugs, wrappings and scales off the roof before officers arrested him. He had hundreds of pounds worth of cocaine in his bedside table and £135 hidden in a sunglasses case.

Messages on his phone showed he and his partner Anna Harkins had been dealing in both drugs for more than a month during the early stages of the first Covid lockdown in 2020.

She was based in Gloucestershire and was picking up supplies and taking them to Devon, where some customers paid credits directly into her bank account.

Analysis of their phones showed they had sold cocaine in amounts which varied from a few grams to 28 gram one ounce deals which they sold for £1,620.

Hannis, aged 26, of Kingsbridge Mews, Gloucester and Harkins, of Musket Close, Gloucester, both admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis.

Hannis was jailed for three years and four months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court. Harkins will be sentenced early next year after a pre-sentence report has been prepared.

The judge told Hannis: ‘You clearly had an operation or management function and involved others as runners to deliver the drugs. You expected more than limited financial advantage and understood the scale of the operation.’

The judge said the offence was more serious because Hannis had been caught drug dealing in Gloucester in 2019 and was awaiting sentence for that at the time he sold cocaine in Devon.

Mr Herc Ashworth, prosecuting, said police raided a flat in Warbro Road, Torquay, on the morning of May 14, 2020, and seized around 20 grams of cocaine, £30 worth of cannabis, £135 cash and phones.

He said: ‘Harkins was in bed and Hannis was naked on the roof where he was throwing or attempting to eat bags of cannabis. He also threw away plastic bags and a set of scales. There was some attempt to dispose of the evidence.’

There were dealer’s lists on the phones and messages discussing the buying, selling and delivery of drugs over an area around Torbay and South Devon. There were also payments between the defendants’ accounts which were disguised as being for vehicle repair.

Hannis has previous convictions for 67 offences and was jailed at Gloucester Crown Court in February 2021 for drug dealing offences in that area for which he was arrested in 2019He has since served that two year sentence and been released before being recalled on licence.

Mr Sam Wysocki, defending, said Hannis was living a chaotic life at the time and dealing partly to fund his own crack cocaine habit. The messages between Hannis and Harkins showed they did not have much money.

He had grown up in care, never attended secondary school, but has taken classes in English and maths while in prison.

He has also trained as a painter and decorator and hopes to be able to make an honest living when he is released.