A FORMER industrial chemist who set up a laboratory in his cellar to produce drugs has been jailed for four months.

Shawn Dilley manufactured a small quantity of amphetamine and was "one step away" from producing ecstasy, Worcester Crown Court heard,

He stole chemicals and equipment worth £500 from his former employer Unilever and downloaded instructions from the internet, said Nicolas Cartwright, prosecuting.

But the laboratory in High Street, Bewdley, was discovered after he fell out with his girlfriend and her 15-year-old daughter found bottles of chemicals stashed in a freezer.

Dilley, aged 32, admitted attempting to produce ecstasy and amphetamine between April and November last year, and theft and producing amphetamine between December 1998 and November last year.

Judge Alistair Macduff said the offences had required planning, cunning and a breach of trust against his former company. But there was no suggestion that Dilley was trying to produce drugs on a commercial scale to supply others.

Mr Cartwright said Dilley, of previous good character, had a first class honours degree in chemistry and worked for Unilever for 15 years before he was sacked over his crimes.

In April last year he began a relationship with Isobel Ward and started living at her house in High Street.

Stolen items

Dilley secretly took stolen items to her cellar - which he kept locked - to make the drugs. But the relationship ended in the autumn of last year and he moved away.

Miss Ward's daughter then discovered "peculiarly wrapped" bottles and her mother challenged Dilley about their contents.

He claimed he was one stage off producing £40,000 worth of ecstasy, said Mr Cartwright. Miss Ward contacted Unilever and police were alerted.

Dilley said he planned to produce drugs for his own use and maintained the £40,000 suggestion was nonsense.

Some of Unilever's equipment was old and due to be scrapped, but other items were ordered by Dilley in the firm's name.

Miss Tracey Lloyd-Nesling, defending, said Dilley, who now lives in Station Road, Kettering, had been a hard worker and took a degree while holding down a full-time job. But he developed an amphetamine habit.

He accepted that he carried out work which was more than preparatory to producing class A drugs.

Since his arrest, he had been given treatment for depression.

Judge Macduff told him he had let his family and friends down and added: "It was only by good fortune that you did not succeed. Your criminal activities were detected at an early stage."