Dealer suspected police operation

A drug dealer suspected he was being targeted by an undercover police officer and frisked him with a hug.

The officer was then forced to drop his trousers in public to prove he was not "wired up", Luton Crown Court heard.

Michael Keogh, 28, of Draper Mews, Luton, admitted four charges of supplying Class A drugs when shown covert pictures of him making a deal.

He was jailed for 30 months and Judge Andrew Bright QC said: "You had sense and courage to accept the inevitable."

Prosecutor Natalie Carter said the officer vehemently denied he was a policeman and to maintain his cover "the officer pulled down his trousers in public".

Family suicides

When hugged, to frisk him for electronic surveillance equipment, nothing was found.

"With that the defendant apologised to him and told him he could ring him anytime, 24-7," she said.

The officer bought drugs from Keogh on three days in February this year.

The deals were conducted at Sainsbury's in Dunstable Road, and Norman Road, Luton.

Catherine Donnelly, defending, said Keogh had spiralled into drug abuse and crime following the suicides of both his brother and father in the space of a few months.

He turned to selling drugs when he ran up a debt with his own dealer who threatened him, his partner and her children if he did not carry out street deals on his behalf.

"He has now focused his mind and given up drugs and plans to return to Rugby on his release where his mother lives and stay away from Luton," she said.