A drugs courier caught with hundreds of pounds of heroin and crack cocaine stuffed up his backside said he was happy to go to prison.

Abokor Hassan, who was on remand having been on the run, told a judge 'I don't want a long sentence. At the moment I am fine, I eat, I have got a bed, TV, there's extras.'

The 23-year-old had been arrested on a plane at Heathrow earlier this year after being in Dubai for 18 months after being charged with drugs supply.

He said he was homeless and in debt when he was caught with the stock which he had brought to town from London.

Representing himself he told a judge at Swindon Crown Court 'At the time I would have loved being in prison, I was in a bad place.'

Ian Fenny, prosecuting, said Hassan was part of a London-based gang of Somali dealers operating in Swindon in 2015.

On Thursday June 18 DC Matt Barnett and a colleague were in the Groundwell Road area when they saw two Somali men emerging from an alleyway.

They moved in and arrested them and Hassan, who was found to have £300 on him, was suspected of having drugs inside him.

At the police station he refused a strip search and was taken to the hospital where an X-ray revealed a package up his rectum.

That evening he agreed to pass what was inside him and was found to have four packages containing 11 wraps.

In total there was enough crack cocaine to make 81 deals and 72 of heroin with a total value in street deals of £1,530.

When he was questioned he told the police that he had a £2,500 debt to someone and was told to make 10 drugs runs from London to Swindon to pay it off.

He said he was on the third one when he was arrested and the money found on him was the proceeds of dealing.

Hassan, of Ilford, east London, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply.

The court heard he was jailed for 42 months in 2013 for conspiracy to supply drugs in London.

Representing himself the defendant, who had sacked two sets of legal teams, initially said he would only admit simple possession of the drugs.

He claimed he had only been given the drugs in Swindon to hide them and was not involved in dealing them.

But after making the comments about being content in jail he changed his mind and accepted he was involved in supplying them.

Hassan, who said he had schizophrenia, told the court that he was sofa surfing at the time as his mum had thrown him out and knew some dangerous people.

Jailing him for three-and-a-half years Judge Robert Pawson said "Where the precise truth lies only Mr Hassan knows.

"I am satisfied Mr Hassan came down here, in accordance with his plea, with these drugs concealed in his back passage. He may have been under some threat."