Richard MooreA HEROIN user sold his house and blew all the cash on the drug. Unemployed Richard Moore, 46, admitted to police that he had spent the proceeds of the sale on heroin within six months.

Swindon magistrates heard Moore had used the cash rather than fund his habit through a life of crime. When the money had run out he stopped using the drug.

Moore, of Knowsley Road, Park South, who admitted possessing heroin, was arrested when police searched a flat back in May.

Moore was one of three men found in one room.

One of the officers spotted him bringing his arm back in from a window and alerted a colleague downstairs who saw plastic bags, later found to contain heroin, floating down to the ground, prosecutor Louisa Thomas said.

A total of 14 bags containing 0,2 grammes of heroin were found and Moore himself, was found with a wrap of the drug on him.

He told police he did not intend to supply heroin to anyone else and that he had only divided it up to control and regulate his use, she said. When the police had arrived at the flat he had panicked and thrown the bags out of the window.

Police later estimated the street value of the drugs seized at £1000, although Moore said it was only around £260.

She drew the magistrates' attention to his record which showed previous convictions for drug offences before 1988.

Martin Wiggins, defending, said Moore had sold his house, experimented with the drug and developed and addiction to it. He had continued with it until he had exhausted his funds, at which point he had stopped. He was now completely drug free.

Moore was completely different to the sort of people who normally appeared in court, he said. "He is not surrounded by that whole criminal ethos that normally surrounds drug use."

He had spent his own money and not involved himself in any other criminal acts. He had taken a "responsible" approach to his drug use, if it was possible to use that word in connection with drugs," explained Mr Wiggins.

Moore was currently waiting for a benefit application to be processed, but was hoping to get a job in car manufacturing. "This is a man who values and desires employment."

The magistrates ordered the defendant to be tagged and remain at home between 7.30pm and 6am every day for three months. They instructed that the drugs and paraphernalia found at the flat should be forfeited and destroyed and that he should pay prosecution costs of £70.

Following the case Moore told the Advertiser his drug use had started after his marriage broke up and his house was repossessed.

It had been a comfort zone he had fallen into, but he stressed he was not an habitual criminal.

He explained that the £10,000 figure represented the proceeds he had been given by estate agents after the house was sold.

Tina Clarke