A father of three caught on  cameras disposing of £2,000 worth of drugs while waiting to be searched at a police station was today behind bars.

Car mechanic Rickkie James was in the custody suite of Wolverhampton’s Bilston Street Police Station waiting for a strip search after being arrested.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard officers later found a wrap of crack cocaine and heroin on the floor nearby.

They checked CCTV footage and saw that 33-year-old James had dropped the wrap, which contained two packets of drugs, down his trouser leg.

Mr Edward Soulsby, prosecuting, told the court the drugs he dropped had a street value of around £2,000.

James had been pulled over in his car in Dunstall Road, Wolverhampton, by police on patrol on May 23. Officers found cannabis and £2,115  cash in the car, which James insisted had been raised from the sale of another car.

James, who pleaded guilty to possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply, was jailed for 36 months.

He had already been sentenced by Wolverhampton magistrates to five months in prison for possession of cannabis.

And the court heard that James, of Carter Road, Whitmore Reans, had been previously been handed a 38-month sentence for possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply in December 2008 and was out on licence when he was arrested for the new offence.