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A cider drinker has been found guilty of drug dealing after a jury took just 38 minutes to reject his claim that heroin and scales magically appeared on his bedside table when he was asleep.

Lawrence Doyle told Exeter Crown Court that he was 'zonked' after mixing cider with drugs which were prescribed to help him overcome heroin addiction.

He said he woke up during a police raid on his home in Barnstaple to find the incriminating evidence on his bedside table.

He believed the drugs had been brought to his flat in Bishops Tawton by his girlfriend Sharon Couch and a black man who she had brought home and put up on a sofa in the living room.

He was convicted after the jury rejected his claims texts on his phone related to his part time job as a used car dealer.

These included one from a man known as Bullshit Ben asking if he could do 20 for 20, and another asking to 'leave pack today, 3.30 pm at latest', which a police expert said related to a pack of bank notes.

He said Ben was a builder who had worked at his house in exchange for car repairs and that the 'leave pack' text referred to a meeting at the Pack of Cards pub.

Doyle, aged 55, of Park Villas, Bishops Tawton, denied possession of class A drugs with intent to supply but was convicted.

Couch, aged 45, of no fixed abode and formerly of Bratton Fleming, admitted the same offence. Both will be sentenced later, when an assessment of Couch for drug rehabilitation has been completed.

Judge Erik Salomonsen granted them both bail and adjourned their case for three weeks.

During a two day trial the jury heard how Doyle was arrested in a dawn raid on December 1 last year in which police found £480 worth of heroin weighing 5.6 grams on his bedside table.

They also found a list of names with numbers alongside them and phones with drug dealing messages on them. Some referred to Doyle by the nickname Condom.

There were two sets of scales and plastic bags and some of the heroin had been divided up into ten different wraps.

Mr Martin Pearce, for Couch, said she had entered a basis of plea in which she said her only involvement was helping Doyle to wrap up drugs ready for sale.

Mr Richard Crabb, for Doyle, said he is a former heroin addict who also has a long standing problem with alcohol and is a heavy cider drinker.

He plans to obtain evidence of the effects which his lifestyle has on his health when the case returns for sentence.