A KENDAL businessman who turned to cocaine dealing after getting into debt has been handed a four-year prison sentence.

Zdzislaw Lewalski, 33, was living temporarily at an address in the town's Milnthorpe Road when police came calling on September 28.

Three bags of class A cocaine - worth up to £4,800 on the street - were seized from the property along with £1,900 cash.

Carlisle Crown Court heard Lewalski tried to struggle with police and was said to have snapped his mobile phone in half, so "destroying an objective piece of evidence".

In interview he admitted selling the illicit substance to a network of up to 15 people having fallen into debt through his delicatessen business in Kendal.

Lewalski, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty on a previous date to possessing cocaine with intent to supply it over a two-month period.

Handing down the jail term, Judge Peter Davies told him: "You were a significant player of class A distribution in the Kendal area."