A MAN who was caught selling crack cocaine while on early release from prison for drug dealing is back behind bars.

Shafakat Ali was jailed for five years in May 2012 after he was caught ferrying a kilogram of heroin across town in a car.

But 15 months after he was released early from prison, having served half the sentence, the 36-year-old was caught at it again.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how police went to his home on Redcliffe Street on Tuesday November 10 last year.

She said they were looking for him as he was wanted for breaching his licence and when they searched him they found two wraps of cocaine and £175 in cash.

Also found in the house was a mobile phone, a set of scales and another quantity of crack cocaine making a total of 10.6 grams worth up to £500.

The scales were found to have traces of cocaine and cannabis on them and when the phone was examined it was found to have a number of texts on it.

When they were examined numerous messages were found to relate to the trade in hard drugs.

Ali pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply and possessing criminal property.

He was jailed in 2012 after he was caught in a car shortly after Christmas the previous year with the huge amount of heroin, much of which was in street deals ready for sale to users.

Gareth James, defending, said that he had been released early from his jail term but had missed a few appointments with the probation service.

As a result the police went looking for him and went to his house with a photograph, and he immediately admitted it was him.

"He accepts he had lapsed back into misuse of cocaine following release from prison and following the break up of his marriage," he said.

"There was obviously a lot of pressure from those he dealt with in the past and he lost a lot of drugs for."

He asked for his client to be sentence without a pre-sentence report saying there was no option but to give him an immediate period of custody.

Jailing him Judge Tim Mousley QC said: "I have to sentence you for dealing in drugs again.

"On this occasion you were dealing in drugs at a significant level in an operation that was plainly involved in street dealing.

"It is made worse by the fact that obviously you had recently served a long sentence for the supply of class A drugs and when you committed this offence you were in the licence period for those offences."