A PANICKY passenger threw out film-wrapped heroin worth £7,775 when drugs detectives stopped a car in a country lane near Kidderminster, Worcester Crown Court heard.

John Baker claimed that when the police struck, the driver took the drug from the glove compartment, put it in his lap and ordered him to throw it away.

Miss Rhona Campbell, prosecuting, said the Crown accepted that Baker may not have known what was in the parcel.

Baker, aged 26, of Stourbridge Road, Kidderminster, was jailed for one month after pleading guilty to possession of the drug. He was freed immediately having already spent three weeks in custody.

Baker also admitted having an offensive weapon in a public place - an open lock-knife - and was fined £500.

Police had kept the car under surveillance since it was first spotted in York Street, Kidderminster. They stopped it on the outskirts of the town by pretending there had been a road accident.

The driver, 24-year-old David Hoghes, of Hayes Road, Wolverley, near Kidderminster, pleaded guilty to having the drug intending to supply it to others. He also admitted a burglary in Hayes Road when he stole a wallet containing £126.

Judge David McEvoy QC postponed sentence because of the illness of Hoghes's father but warned that custody was inevitable. Hoghes was granted bail.

Jeffrey Bryant, for Baker, said his client did not intend to have the drugs but had no option when they were put in his lap.

The knife was used in his job for a parcels firm and he had forgotten to take it out of his work clothes.

The judge said he accepted the explanation but warned that people who carried knives could normally expect custody. Without such weapons, the number of woundings, manslaughter and murder cases would be reduced.