A FORMER town centre security guard who rented a car for drug dealers to use to peddle heroin across Swindon has been jailed for a year.

Sean Neil was paid £100 a week to hire a Fiat Stilo in his name and allow it to be used as transport for people selling hard drugs.

But the 34-year-old was caught after a policeman executing a warrant on his friend who hadn't turned up on a probation order became suspicious of the vehicle.

A judge at the crown court heard that Neil's friend Alan Smith was being arrested for failing on the order when he was found to have ten wraps of heroin on him.

The 37-year-old was also found to have a syringe filled with the drug hidden in his underpants when he was arrested.

George Threlfall, prosecuting, said that as Smith was being led from his home in Alfred Street on the evening of May 15 last year the car was spotted nearby.

Police made inquiries and found that the vehicle had been rented to Neil from Europcar.

When the firm asked for identity Neil showed them his Reliance photo card as he was working as a security guard and their checks on him were negative.

When the car was collected by the hire company they discovered it had covered 3,357 miles in the two weeks he had the vehicle.

Mr Threlfall said Neil was arrested because there had also been some damage to the car and questioned about where he had driven it.

After at first being evasive Neil admitted that he had not used the car himself but had hired it for two other men to get themselves about selling drugs.

"He accepted that he knew they were drug dealers and dealt in crack cocaine and heroin in the town to people he know," he said.

"When Smith was questioned he said that he had been a heroin user for some time and the five wraps hidden in each of his trainers were for his own use."

Neil, of Ponting Street, admitted attempting to be concerned in the supply of heroin, and Smith, now of Basingstoke Road, Reading, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin.

Jonathan Simpson, defending Neil, said that his client had not meant that he was a user of drugs at the time of his arrest but had been in the past.

When he worked as a security officer in the town centre he said part of his job was to remove drug users from stores and because of his kind way of dealing with them, many liked him.

"He is a bit of a soft touch," Mr Simpson told the court.

Paul Orton, for Smith, said his client had started taking heroin after his wife died in childbirth in 1997.

He said that he had spent almost two months in custody awaiting sentence and had admitted simply possessing the drugs.

Passing sentence Judge Charles Wade told Neil: "Involvement in the supply of Class A drugs, at whatever level, can only result in a custodial sentence."