A PENRITH man accused of being a heroin dealer has gone on trial.

Jurors at Carlisle Crown Court heard 35-year-old Michael John Torrance was stopped by police in the city centre on January 24, 2018.

In his possession was £2,000 cash which, prosecutor Gerard Rogerson alleged, was Torrance’s “ill-gotten gains”.

When officers searched his flat, two quantities of brown powder were found inside a drawer in his bedroom. One was a “golf ball sized” wrap of heroin potentially worth £1,200 if sold on the street.

Six pre-packed individual wraps of the illegal class A drug were found in plastic packaging within a Kinder egg container - “bagged up and ready to go”, Mr Rogerson alleged as he opened the case.

“Mr Torrance also had two knives and a rolling pin in his bedroom,” said the prosecutor. “Hallmarks, The Crown say, of a dealer being prepared to protect his valuable stash.

“It is the Crown’s case that the unemployed Mr Torrance had this amount of drugs on him - going well beyond personal use - in his possession because he was going to sell it on the streets to make money.”

Torrance, of Norfolk Road, Penrith, denies one charge alleging heroin possession with intent to supply. The trial continues.