Mum caught dealing heroin in supermarket car park - in front of her two children

A mum caught by chance dealing heroin from her car - in front of her two children - is behind bars today.

Stacey Sherwood’s drug deal in a supermarket car park was spotted by an undercover police officer who was waiting for his colleague to leave the store toilets.

Sherwood, 35, carried out the illicit exchange after driving her Mini into the Asda car park in Skelton.

Her two children, aged two and nine, were in the back seat, Teesside Crown Court heard today.

A male heroin user came up to the parked car and gave her money for three packs of heroin, worth £25 each.

“That is not an example you should be setting to either of your children,” a judge told her.

Two undercover police officers had stopped in the same car park as one wanted to “use the facilities” in the store.

His waiting colleague spotted the drug deal at 11.35am on April 17 last year.

The judge, Recorder Edward Bindloss, said: “He radioed to his colleagues. The police swooped very quickly.”

Sherwood was arrested with the money lying in her lap while the drug buyer was caught with the heroin in his hand.

Sherwood, of Holmbeck Road, Skelton, denied supplying the Class A drug.

She was convicted after a trial - during which she was on heroin - in February, and she still maintains her innocence.

She wrote to the judge saying she was not guilty and there had been a miscarriage of justice.

She was given a three-year prison sentence for supplying Class A drugs in 2009 and 2010.

The judge said she was a heroin user at the time of the latest drug offence, turning back to heroin use as a result of post-natal depression.

He said: “I’m satisfied on the evidence this was an isolated incident.

“Your case is so serious that only a custodial sentence is justified,” he added, jailing her for three-and-a-half years.

Robert Mochrie, defending, said: “She has struggled with heroin addiction for many, many years.

“It now transpires that she was in fact under the influence of heroin during the trial.

“It comes as no surprise, as is often the case, that after spending a few weeks in prison, she looks better for it and feels better for it.

“No doubt this was a woman who must have been supplying to assist with her own deeply entrenched habit, a typical but sorry tale.”