TWO drug dealers who upgraded their operation from cannabis to cocaine have each been jailed for three years.

Aram Bapeery and Lisa Mills who, shared a home in Kidderminster, were dealing to a small circle of acquaintances when they were caught in October, 2011. Worcester Crown Court heard.

Mills called police when a gang of men armed with knives arrived at the home they shared and she was frightened, John Evans, prosecuting, told the court.

Police took her mobile phone and found messages on it relating to drug dealing. Bapeery gave two containers to a neighbour to look after and when police retrieved them, they were found to have 6.5 grams of cocaine worth between £280 and £350 at street level and 4.7 grams of skunk cannabis worth £50.

They also had scales and other bags with traces of drugs on them.

The court heard the case had been delayed partly because Bapeery, who followed proceedings with a Kurdish interpreter, and Mills had initially denied the offences. It had also been held up through no fault of their own.

Gerald Bermingham, defending, said Bapeery, 32, of Small Heath, Birmingham had not been in trouble since the offence, which dated back nearly three years. He had a young daughter and had found a job and was unlikely to be back before the courts.

Emma Rutherford, for 33-year-old Mills, of Hawfinch Rise, Kidderminster, said she was a mother of three and was soon to be a grandmother. She had also kept out of trouble and had a new relationship.

Both pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis and possessing cannabis and cocaine with intent to supply.

Judge Michael Cullum said the case had suffered significant delay.

Mills, who had 10 previous convictions for dishonesty and had spent time in prison and Bapeery, who had no relevant convictions, had stayed free of trouble but they had been involved in a commercial operation for profit, he said.

"You were running a cannabis operation but you moved on to sell cocaine and so became peddlers of class A drugsb inflicting misery on other people for money," he told them.

They were both given three years on the cocaine charge and 12 months each on the two cannabis charges, to run concurrently, a total of three years.