A 'DESPERATE' drug addict has moved to a Worcester guesthouse after she sold heroin and crack to undercover officers at her old flat.

Melanie Morgan, now of Barbourne Road, Worcester, wept and made the sign of the cross as she was spared jail at Worcester Crown Court on Monday.

The 52-year-old made the mistake of supplying class A drugs to undercover officers who were targeting County Lines dealers as part of Operation Ballet.

Rupert Jones, prosecuting, said the operation was to target the supply of drugs into rural counties, which include Worcestershire and Herefordshire, from urban centres by those who use the flats of vulnerable people as a base to sell or store drugs, a practice called 'cuckooing'.

He said the undercover officers were deployed at a time when dealing had peaked in the summer of 2017.

The undercover officers asked Morgan, now aged 52, if she knew anyone who could supply them with drugs on September 19, 2017.

"She said she could and invited them to her flat. Inside that flat she supplied one wrap of heroin and one wrap of crack cocaine," said Mr Jones.

She also told officers if they wanted more drugs they could go through her in future. "She accepted the supply took place but said she could not remember it," Mr Jones told the court.

Julia Needham, defending, said her client had been addicted to class A drugs for some 20 years and had been homeless, on and off, during that period.

Miss Needham said Morgan had no previous convictions for supply and said she was so nervous before her court appearance that she almost did not make it through court security 'because of panic attacks'.

"She's exceptionally nervous about today's proceedings" said Miss Needham.

The barrister added: "She is desperately asking them (the undercover officers) to give her a bit of what they have purchased."

She told the officers 'I would only have one pipe - just one pipe'.

"It couldn't be more clear she is making no profit and in a fairly desperate situation," said Miss Needham.

Judge James Burbidge QC said Morgan was modestly convicted given the difficulties in her life but that drugs had a significant detrimental effect on communities, including upon the defendant herself.

He said she was not part of the drugs line and the Crown had not suggested that she was. The judge took into account that she had been in hospital due to mental health problems.

The judge said he was 'rather unusually' prepared to make a 12 month community order to include 24 rehabilitation activity requirement days.