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An ‘intelligent’ and ‘talented’ locomotives worker dealt drugs for two years from a ‘one stop shop’ in his home.

The Loftus man has now been sent to prison with a judge expressing disappointment at the “Greek tragedy” of his case.

Steven Robert Kidd, 36, had the one stop drugs shop until he invited police into his home on Coronation Road, Loftus, and confessed: “You’ve caught me dealing.”

He had almost a kilo of cannabis, seven Ecstasy tablets, scales, and, in his car and home, £8,955 cash, Teesside Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

Judge Sean Morris told Kidd: “You’re an intelligent man. Not only that, you’re a highly skilled individual who has done work with steam locomotives, including quite famous ones.

“What on earth a man of your talent is doing sinking to this level beggars belief.

“This is a proper tragedy in the Greek sense. This is a downfall brought about by yourself.”

Prosecutor Emma Atkinson said Kidd was a “middleman” supplying not only to users but people who would supply drugs on.

He admitted he had been dealing cannabis for two years, from November 2014 to November 2016.

Text messages found on his phone said “hi kiddo can you do me a henry on tick til Thursday” and “I’ve only got £50, I’ve got two people wanting weed”.

At one point he was asked: “Do you have MDMA?” He replied: “I’ll sort you out.”

Kidd admitted supplying cannabis, a Class B drug, and possessing cannabis and the Class A drug MDMA with intent to supply.

He had two previous convictions, for possessing the same drugs.

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Julian Gaskin, defending, said Kidd had been a heavy user who was manipulated by others in the chain and supplied to fund his own habit.

He said: “His involvement was supplying drugs that he himself was also using.”

He said Kidd otherwise played an active and positive role in the community and worked very hard in a high-pressure job, and his drug use had increased because of stress.

He added the dad, who came to court on crutches, had a leg injury with a metal frame which had to be removed, and he had now stopped using cannabis because of the case.

The Ecstasy dealing was a “recent phenomenon” to a peer group.

Judge Morris told the defendant: “The trouble is, Mr Kidd, the stuff that you were pushing on the streets causes crime and causes misery.

“I see people standing where you are standing who have committed serious acts of violence to pay people like you. That’s what makes it so serious.

“If people want to pump their veins full of poison that’s all right as long as it doesn’t affect anybody else in society, but I’m afraid it does. It affects everybody.

“A prison sentence, as you know, has to follow. I’m going to regard this as a one stop shop dealing business.

“You have only two previous minor convictions but they were shots across your bow that you should have paid attention to.

“You are mainly a cannabis dealer and you have pleaded guilty to dealing over a considerable period of time.”

Kidd was jailed for two years and eight months.