A dealer who sold drugs openly in sight of shoppers and families has been jailed after being caught in a series of police stings.

Rikki Anders, formerly of Sidmouth, was caught six times over the space of as many months by undercover officers who were targeting London and Liverpool based ‘County Lines’ drugs gangs.

He was recruited by one gang in February while he was living rough in the centre of Exeter but when he was housed by the city council he rented out his home to another crime group for £100 a week.

Anders supplied drugs in an archway on Exeter’s High Street, in a park just off Queen Street, in a city centre underpass and a restaurant in Gandy Street and an Aldi store in Alphington Road.

He had a long standing drug habit which got out of control after he moved from Sidmouth to Exeter and became homeless.

Anders, aged 57, also known as Myers, of Grendon Road, Exeter, admitted six counts of supplying and two of possession of class A drugs and was jailed for two years and four months at Exeter Crown Court on Tuesday.

Judge David Evans said: “Given the period over which you operated, by July and August your role had become significant.

“The sorts of location where you were dealing, such as the city centre in the middle of the day, were places where people who were non users were exposed to the act of supply.”

Mr Brian Fitzherbert, prosecuting, said Anders was caught by two separate police undercover operations, one in February and one in the summer.

In the first he supplied two officers with drugs on behalf of a county phone line called TT. He used the nickname Raven and answered the county line phone on one occasions. In July and August he supplied an officer for a London gang named Pricy.

When he was finally arrested he told police he was allowing the gang to operate out of his home in exchange for £100 a week and free drugs. He was also delivering drugs for them.

Miss Kelly Scrivener, defending, said Anders started dealing after running up a drug debt while he was homeless and being ordered to sell drugs at knifepoint. He worked off the debt and was housed by the council but was drawn into dealing for the second gang to fund his own drug use, which had grown while he was homeless. He has been working with the drug service since August and on his release he plans to return to his former partner and devote himself to being her full time carer.