A FORMER waiter turned drug dealer who served up heroin and crack cocaine on the streets of Worcester is now behind bars.

Volkan Kurt served meals in London restaurants but turned to dealing drugs in Worcester instead, treating the city as his 'marketplace'.

The 21-year-old had his own 'congregation' of addicts by the city’s riverside but the dealer was spotted by undercover officers from Operation Blade who are battling to cut the supply of class A drugs.

Kurt was responsible for a drugs telephone line called 'the chef line' which addicts used to get access to Class A narcotics.

The investigation led to the seizure of hundreds of pounds worth of heroin and crack and around £2,000 in criminal cash, much of which was stashed in a Worcester hotel room where Kurt was staying. Police placed his benefit from the enterprise, including cash and drugs seized, as £2,997.

Kurt, of Mornington Close in London, was arrested as part of Operation Blade, a police initiative to cut the supply of class A drugs into Worcester from major cities, sometimes using young people or vulnerable adults to carry and sell drugs across county boundaries with the help of dedicated mobile phone hotlines.

He had already admitted possession of heroin with intent to supply, possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply, possession of criminal property, possession of cannabis and obstructing a constable in the execution of their duties, when he appeared at Worcester Crown Court yesterday to be sentenced.

Police officers in plain clothes spotted Kurt by the river Severn at around 1pm on Tuesday, March 6 .

Timothy Sapwell, prosecuting, said: “They saw a group of users by the river, near the Diglis Hotel, congregating there and deduced that a drug deal was about to take place and spotted the defendant. The group made off towards the cathedral.”

The defendant was seen to approach a known user who was subsequently arrested and found to be in possession of two wraps of drugs.

Mr Sapwell added: “The defendant was also arrested. He refused to stop or comply and refused to give his name or date of birth.

"He was seen to discard three wraps. They were found to be crack cocaine.

"He was taken to custody and gave a false name. When searched he was found to be in possession of two mobile phones, one showing a connection with the chef line.”

Police also seized £70 in cash, found eight wraps of heroin in Kurt’s underwear and a key card for a room in the city’s Whitehouse Hotel.

Officers searched the room where they found just under £2,000 in cash including large sums of coins, finding 74 wraps of class A drugs, each a £10 deal. They also found a block of cannabis weighing one and a half ounces.

In interview Kurt said he had come to Worcester looking for work, had brought the cash with him and claimed the drugs were for his own personal use.

However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges on March 26.

Mr Sapwell said Kurt's role in the enterprise was 'significant' and the sentencing guidelines showed a starting point of a four-and-a-half year prison sentence with a range of three-and-a-half to seven years.

He said the offences were aggravated by the community impact of this sort of dealing.

Richard Hull, defending, said Kurt had been using cocaine but became indebted, undertaking his role to 'discharge the debt'.

He added that Kurt was not being subjected to threats and 'clearly knew what he was doing'.

"He was trusted to be in that area and supply drugs in the way he was," Mr Hull said.

Mr Hull described Kurt as a quietly spoken former waiter with four GCSEs who would like to undertake a barber's course.

"He has suggested he's very committed to not making this mistake again," said Mr Hull.

Judge Jim Tindal described it as 'a troubling case' as Kurt had been a perfectly reasonable young man until he got involved in drugs.

"You studied, went to college and have got yourself drawn into the drugs world in London. You got yourself in debt.

"When you get in debt with dealers, one of the ways to repay your debt is to start selling drugs for them, which is what you did.

"But this is not a simple case of someone with a chaotic lifestyle who is feeding a drugs habit being completely manipulated by dealers.

"The dealers saw something in you, that you were an intelligent and resourceful young man and you were given a fair bit of responsibility.

"You were dealing on a fairly wide scale. You had created your own marketplace in Worcester."

The judge jailed Kurt for 30 months. Time already spent on remand will count towards his sentence.

A confiscation order was also made in relation to Kurt's available cash (£2,088) and a timetable drawn up for recovering other money he made through dealing.

The judge added: "You're young enough to put this whole experience behind you. Don't be one of the people who comes out of prison and back into the arms of the drug dealers."