A TEENAGE drug dealer who sold almost £3,000 of crack cocaine a week on the streets of Swindon may escape a jail term.

Shaun Frazer, who came to town from his home in Wolverhampton to peddle the class A drug, has been told he may be freed to be treated for his own addiction.

Judge Charles Wade, at Swindon Crown Court, told the 19-year-old he would allow him to be assessed for a drug treatment and testing order rather than being sent to prison.

"It may be you are somebody who wants to change and now is the time because you are 19," he said.

"If I were to send you to prison the outcome might be pretty bleak."

The court heard Frazer was caught in the act when a police patrol stopped the car he was driving because they were suspicious after a spate of break-ins.

Simon Brenchley, prosecuting, said officers spotted the red Vauxhall Astra in the Kingshill area. They were suspicious as the car was registered to Wolver-hampton and there had been a number of burglaries in the area.

The car was stopped in Faringdon Road and Frazer was found to be driving with passengers in the front and back seats.

When he was told he was going to be searched he told the officers, 'I am a heroin addict. Don't tell the others, they don't know'.

He was found to have a bag containing 10 wraps of crack cocaine weighing 2.8g as well as 0.226g of heroin in four wraps, which was for his own use.

Officers then searched an address on Albion Street where they found a further six wraps of heroin weighing 0.364g.

Police also found another bag containing 5.43g of crack cocaine in the car and a suitcase with £2,700 in it, but both were thought to belong to his accomplice.

When Frazer was questioned he told police he'd been dealing heroin and crack cocaine for the other man. Mr Brenchley said: "He said he gets given the drugs, takes phone calls and sells them around Swindon," he said. "He said he was paid in cash and heroin. He said he was dealing daily and the other man leaves Swindon every couple of days. He said he was selling £300 to £400 per day of crack cocaine."

Frazer pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying class A drugs, possessing crack with intent to supply and possessing heroin.

Oliver Woolhouse, defending, said: "He has been ashamed to the extent he has hidden it from his family."

Catherine Turnbull