A woman who sold heroin and crack cocaine while renting a room in an Oxford guest house has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Karen Cole, 23, a former athlete who competed at county level, sold drugs to fund her own crack cocaine habit, Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Judge David Morton-Jack said: "You supplied drug addicts with heroin on three occasions and crack cocaine twice.

"The message has to get out that those who concern themselves in the supply of crack will go to prison."

Nicholas Syfret, prosecuting, told the court that police had executed a search warrant at a guest house at 141 Iffley Road, Oxford, on April 5 this year.

Cole, of Priory Road, Littlemore, was restrained on her bed by officers and found to have a wrap of heroin in her mouth and another by her head.

The court heard that Cole, who admitted five charges of supplying a class A drug, at £20 a time, was acting as a dealer's runner.

She worked for four dealers and received a free fix for every £100 worth of drugs she sold.

In mitigation, it was said that the defendant had turned to substance abuse when her mother died, and was now living drug-free.