A drug dealer has been jailed for five years after being found hiding under a lorry in a Watford layby by dog units.

After Thames Valley Police witnessed a suspected drug deal inside a vehicle in their area, in August 2019, officers attempted to block it in. The vehicle then rammed the marked police car, damaging it and causing whiplash injuries to an officer.

Having made off, it was then spotted in a layby in the A41 near Watford. Herts Police dog units were called in and they found Nii Omane under a parked lorry.

Omane attempted to run away but the police dog soon caught him. A search revealed £2,440 in cash and the keys to the vehicle that rammed police. A Samsung phone and a black film pot with 14 wraps of heroin and 24 wraps of crack cocaine inside were discovered nearby.

Searching his address yielded a further £860 in cash, drug-dealing paraphernalia, and a small amount of cannabis.

Omane, of Melville Road in Haringey, London, was arrested that day and charged on April 8.

Despite denying the offences throughout, Omane was linked forensically and through family contacts to the phone, which contained bulk messaging to vulnerable drug users about drug supply.

Forensics also linked him to drugs packaging.

Watford Observer: Nii Omane.Nii Omane. (Image: Thames Valley Police.)

The 37-year-old eventually pleaded guilty to intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine, cannabis possession, and dangerous driving at Aylesbury Crown Court on Tuesday January 16, the day that had been set for his trial.

He was then sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and disqualified from driving for six years.

Omane also provided false details on a notice of intended prosecution for the driving offences initially, by supplying the name of someone completely different.

Detective Sergeant Nathan Devlin said the evidence against the dealer was “so overwhelming that he had no choice but to eventually plead guilty”.

“This sentence sends a message to people involved in the supply of drugs that drug dealing will not be tolerated in South Bucks and we will be robust in our response,” he added.

“We will continue to pursue this criminal activity and look to protect vulnerable people where possible.”