A drug dealer was found hiding in his girlfriend's wardrobe after police tracked a taxi booking to her home.

Tallanius Bridgland, from Deal, was on licence from prison at the time, with a condition he lived at his father's address, when officers became aware of the 'Ty' county line supplying crack cocaine and heroin.

A phone linked to that drugs chain and regularly sending bulk text messages to known class A users was traced to a taxi that had been booked for a fare from Bridgland's dad's home to his girlfriend's property.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that when police went to the woman's home in Blunden Drive, she told them no one was there.

But prosecutor Craig Evans said a search revealed the convicted drug dealer hiding in a walk-in wardrobe, as well as a phone linked to the Ty line and a quantity of drugs.

Some of the wraps - which contained cocaine and heroin - had been stashed inside a large tub of nail varnish bottles. Cash was also seized.

The 30-year-old, who has 13 previous convictions including two for possessing class A drugs in 2017 and 2023, later admitted being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin between July 9 and October 3 this year.

Appearing for sentence on November 26, the court heard he was on licence for last year's conviction when arrested.

In 2017, he was part of a 10-man gang supplying drugs on a large-scale on the Isle of Sheppey and linked to organised crime groups in Liverpool.

The court heard that having been "surrounded by drugs" while growing up with a mother addicted to heroin and crack cocaine herself, he became a user and fell into debt.

But his lawyer Jodie Mole said Bridgland, of Freemen’s Way, was "now making efforts to stay off cocaine".

Jailing him for a total of 2,045 days - a little over five years and seven months - Judge Simon Taylor said he had played "a significant role in a county lines drug chain supplying East Kent".

Det Sgt Scott Drake, from Kent Police, said: “Drug addiction causes no end of misery to the lives of users and everyone concerned with them, as well as to those communities where the effects of substance addiction ripple out.

“Dealers, who are the root of the problem, may go to all ends to try to avoid us but we will always strive to bring them to justice and to remove drugs from the streets of Kent.”