A DRUG dealer caught hiding under the stairs following a police chase, just weeks before he was due to stand trial for similar matters, has been jailed for five years and nine months.

Tobiah Rule had been spotted driving out of KFC in Trowbridge when he made off from officers who had followed him to Hilperton in September last year.

After running from a pursuing police car, rolling over its bonnet, and scaling a fence he sprinted into a house on the Paxcroft Mead estate with officers running after him.

While he hid his family tried to stop the cops from coming in, with his mum accused them of being racist, while launching a volley of racist abuse at them.

David Maunder, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the 27-year-old was first arrested in September 2017 on Roundstone Street.

He had again run off and, after a third of a mile chase into a neighbouring nature reserve, was caught and found with drugs stored in his pants.

As well as 13 ecstasy tablets embossed with upmarket champagne brand Dom Perignon he also had 3.5g of MDMA powder and £230 in cash,

A further £2,730 was found in the car involved, but it was not known who it belonged to as someone else had been driving the soft top BMW, but it was still seized.

After denying supplying drugs he was due to stand trial in October but a few weeks before he was again spotted by police, this time behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta.

Police trailed it from Trowbridge to Hilperton where they moved in to arrest him, only for him to flee into the house.

In the car officers later found cocaine, ecstasy and skunk cannabis, with more found in his house along with a cutting agent.

They also found a number of phones, one containing messages relating to the trade in drugs and another which was locked and which he refused to hand over the PIN for.

Mr Maunder said along with about £1,200 worth of drugs officers also recovered around £1,000 in cash.

Rule, of Littlejohn Avenue, Melksham, pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing drugs with intent to supply and one of having criminal property in the form of cash.

The court heard he was jailed for 27 months in 2013 for dealing heroin and had a number of other previous convictions.

Mark Ashley, defending, said that in 2017 his client had been a drug addict and was selling to fund his own habit.

A year later he had got clean but was being pressured to pay back what he owed from his previous arrest and own use.

He said he had two young children and realised he had to get clean for their sake and was sorry for what he had done.

Jailing him Judge Jason Taylor QC said "I accept you are remorseful, you intend to set a better example for your children.

"I am hopeful that the remorse is genuine and you want to change the way you are living. I also factor into account that you are a relatively young man."