A Margate drugs dealer escaped a mandatory seven-year jail sentence so she could keep her baby after it was born in prison.

But Victoria Heaton repaid the merciful judge by dealing crack cocaine and heroin at her home and in front of the same child!

Now the judge who slashed the original sentence to four and a half years – has given the 37 year old mum a new jail term of five years and seven months.

Heaton was arrested after a raid by police at her home in William Avenue, Margate in February this year – her fourth drug-dealing conviction in the past seven years.

As one officer looked through the letterbox to check it was safe to smash their way in, he found Heaton looking back at him.

Then as his colleagues poured into the house they found Heaton and others “frantically” flushing drugs down the kitchen sink, Canterbury Crown Court was told.

Judge Adele Williams said that at the time of the raid “there was a young woman looking after Heaton’s baby” while officers found “many thousand pounds worth of drugs” and more than £1000 in cash in the house.

She told her that in October 2009 she could have been sentenced to a mandatory seven year jail as it was her third conviction for dealing in class A drugs.

“But in mercy this court was persuaded it would be unjust to impose that sentence because you were due to give birth to a baby in December that year.

“Had a sentence of five or more years been passed you would not have been able to keep the baby in the mother and baby unit in prison. That’s why you were given a four and a half year sentence.”

She said that Heaton, who admitted charges of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply, had proved that she was either “unwilling or unable to take advantage and become free of drugs and dealing.”

The judge continued: “Now you were caught dealing in the presence of your child and others – doing it for financial gain. You were helped by the probation service to get a home after your release from prison - but now you have thrown that all away.”

She was jailed for five years seven months – as she was eligible for a sentence reduction for pleading guilty.

Another man, Billy Jones, 18, from London, who was arrested at the same time was given a three years in a young offenders institute after admitting dealing in Class A.