A DRUG user has been jailed for defying an order to stay away from a vulnerable friend who was at risk of being exploited by dealers.

Steven Heap was banned by a restraining order from going to the house in Quay Terrace, Newton Abbot, which was also subject to a Closure Order.

He was arrested there on January 8 this year while carrying £80 of heroin, which he told police was for his own use.

It was the fifth time he had defied the closure order and the second time he had broken the restraining order.

Heap, aged 54, of Longford Lane, Kingsteignton, admitted possession of heroin and breach of the two orders and was jailed for 12 weeks by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: ‘The purpose of the orders was to prevent you harassing a vulnerable occupant. You think that if that vulnerable person invites you in, you will go regardless of what the courts say.

‘You say you were there as his friend, rather than planning to exploit him, but as a drug user, your presence increased the risks to him, including the risk of losing his accommodation.’

Mr Nigel Hall, prosecuting, said Heap had been banned from going to the house last year but has repeatedly broken the closure order, even when it was reinforced with a restraining order.

There was concern that the occupant of the house was vulnerable to exploitation and that it could become a base for drug dealing.

Mr Barry White, defending, said Heap himself had endured a very long struggle against heroin addiction and hoped to overcome it with the help of probation when he was released from jail.