A drug dealer has been jailed for six years – after inadvertently directing police to his stash of cocaine and heroin.

Officers were leading Vin Campbell from his Wolverhampton flat after being called about a dom-estic dispute.

He asked them to fetch his hat from a drawer, forgetting he had put drugs inside worth more than £4,000. The find sparked a full search of the one-bedroom flat.

Police officers at the property in Woodcross Street, Woodcross, also unearthed a safe holding £12,000 cash.

Campbell, aged 47, who had previously been locked up for four years for possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply in 2004, insisted he was just “looking after” the drugs and cash for a four-strong gang who had beaten him up in the past.

He told the court yesterday that he was unable to identify those involved “because I only know their street names” and claimed that both he and his partner were feeding £100-a-day crack habits when the stash was found on December 10.

“I had taken the bag of drugs out of the safe for a smoke and then put it in the drawer,” said Campbell.

He was giving evidence during a Newton Hearing to test the basis of his guilty pleas, which were not accepted by the prosecution despite his insistence that he had turned his life around after “doing some terrible things in the past.”

Judge Amjad Nawaz concluded after listening to the account of the defendant: “This is completely implausible. It defies belief.”

Campbell admitted possession of criminal property and having drugs with int-ent to supply. The judge ordered the destruction of the drugs seized and the forfeiture of the cash found. A proceeds of crime hearing will follow later in the year.