A HEROIN dealer who was run over by a car as he tried to flee the police received a custodial sentence of more than two years.

Daniel Binyameen was caught by officers with drugs which had a potential street value of £2,500, prosecutor Gareth James told Newport Crown Court.

He said the 20-year-old, of Marlborough Road, Newport, was a “street dealer” who was arrested on September 4.

Binyameen was dealing in the Maindee area of the city when he was spotted by police who recovered 25 grammes of heroin which was found in a cigarette box and in his underwear.

Mr James said that when the defendant was first approached by officers “he looked as if he had seen a ghost”.

The prosecutor added that when they went to arrest him: “He got out of an officer’s grasp and ran into a car which hit him quite hard and he fell to the floor. The officer was able to arrest him.”

Binyameen admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply and obstructing Police Constable Christopher Fairclough.

Jeffrey Jones, mitigating, asked the judge to consider his client’s immediate guilty pleas and consider a suspended custodial term.

He said this was the defendant’s first conviction and that his mother was a nurse and his sister a teacher.

Mr Jones told the court, “he has a good family network”.

His barrister added that Binyameen was recently laid off as a furniture company worker in Newport and was short of money after refusing to claim benefits.

Mr Jones said he was looking to study an electrical and plumbing course at a city college but that was “now on hold”.

The judge, Recorder Peter Rouch QC, told the defendant: “Dealing in class A drugs, especially heroin, is a very, very serious offence.

“Everybody knows the terrible damage that heroin causes the people who use it.

“The motivation for getting involved in this was financial, but there are other ways of making money than dealing in heroin.

“The only appropriate sentence is one of immediate custody.”

Recorder Rouch sent Binyameen to a young offender institution for 28 months.

He said he would serve half of that sentence before being released on licence and he must also pay a victim surcharge of £140.

The court heard the defendant was arrested with another man and that enquiries were still ongoing in his case.