A GYM-SLIP mum turned to selling hard drugs to fund her cannabis habit, Swindon Crown Court was told.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was just 15 years old when she decided to branch out into dealing heroin having already made money supplying cannabis.

But the Chippenham teenager had failed to find anyone who would buy the killer drug from her.

The girl had been dealing in cannabis on a small scale from as young as 14.

She was arrested by police last year in possession of the two drugs and came clean when questioned about what she had been doing.

Chris Jervis, defending, told Swindon Crown Court that his client had asked police to interview her for a second time and was straight with them about what she was doing.

He said: "She says in her interview with police that the cannabis which she admits she supplied was to finance her cannabis habit but she did not have a heroin habit.

"She had purchased the heroin to sell a few days before. 'Since Monday I have been trying to sell heroin but not having much success,' she said. As for the Class A drugs, it is effectively an attempt over a few days."

His client, who is now 16 years old, had pleaded guilty to possessing heroin and cannabis with intent to supply on the date she was arrested in October last year.

She also pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis between January 1 last year, when she would have been just 14, and the date of her arrest.

Philip Warren, prosecuting, said that the matter had been committed to the crown court by magistrates in the youth court at Trowbridge.

He told Judge Charles Wade that the maximum sentence that the youth court had was a two-year detention and training order and if he thought that was adequate, he must return the case to them.

Mr Warren said: "The fact that they committed this implies that they thought that these offences attracted greater punishment than they could impose."

The judge replied that he thought the charge of possessing heroin with intent to supply could be serious enough to pass the maximum sentence available to the youth court.

He said that since the youth court had sent the case to crown court, it sounded like they were considering a sentence higher than the maximum detention and training order.

But he said: "There would have to be some pretty aggravating features for a single Class A to impose more than the maximum the other court could impose."

Judge Wade told the girl: "In view of your guilty pleas to these charges your case is going to be sent back to the magistrates and they are going to sentence you, not me."

Mr Jervis said his client had been living with her sister but they had fallen out over the care of her baby and asked if she could be allowed to live with her mother.

He said that although her mother was not there all the time, she could look after the child when the teenager was unable to.