A heroin addict who claimed he was a victim of ’cuckooing’ has been jailed for five years and eight months for drug dealing.

Alexander Charles Messenger, 38, admitted possession of heroin with intent to supply and a money laundering offence of possessing criminal property.

Police raided Messenger’s home in St Mary’s Avenue, Port St Mary, at 6.45am on January 10 last year, prosecutor Roger Kane told the Court of General Gaol Delivery.

Officers found brown powder in a drawer in the defendant’s bedroom together with five wrapped packages also containing brown powder, which were concealed in a cubby hole behind the front door.

Tests later confirmed the powder as being heroin. There was 160.7g of the drug in total, with a street value of at least £16,000.

Two of the five clear plastic wraps had matched a sample of DNA provided by Messenger.

Police executed a second warrant and found £3,400 in cash hidden in the attic.

Following his initial arrest on January 10, the defendant gave no comment responses.

But when subsequently arrested again on suspicion of money laundering, he accepted in interview that he was aware that the five packages contained heroin.

He said he had initially received 18oz of the drug and had bagged it up himself and had ’got rid’ of 12oz.

Messenger pleaded guilty on the basis that he was addicted to heroin and had allowed a local dealer to store the drug in his home and not pay any rent.

His dealer was also a heroin addict who owed money to his supplier in Liverpool, Mr Kane told the court.

Defence advocate Paul Rodgers argued that his client was the victim of ’cuckooing’ - in which drug dealers take over the home of a vulnerable person in order to use it as a base for drug dealing.

But Deemster Kainth pointed out in his own basis of plea, the defendant had admitted assisting in the supply of drugs himself to a small group of four or five and taking a profit of £150 each time.

The Deemster said: ’You may well have been a victim of cuckooing but you also had a side business of selling to a local group of individuals.’

Mr Rodgers said his client’s behaviour had ’gone downhill’ with problems stemming from his being the victim of an assault in 2007 which had left him requiring a plate in his head.

’He has very serious conditions. This is not a man in good health,’ said the advocate who accepted his client was something of a ’Jekyll and Hyde character’.

Mr Rodgers said although his client had returned to heroin use after his last prison sentence, he had refused to use drugs while in jail on remand.

Sentencing Messenger, Deemster Kainth told him: ’You are no stranger to court. You have a number of convictions. You have been in trouble with the police on many occasions.’

He said: ’You know supplying class A drugs causes no end of difficulties not only for yourself but also the end users as well.’

The Deemster gave the defendant maximum credit for his early guilty plea.

He jailed Messenger for five years and eight months for the drugs offence with a further eight months to run concurrently for the money laundering offence.

A proceeds of crime hearing will take place on February 6.