FORMER neighbours of a crack cocaine dealer jailed for two-and-a-half years have condemned the sentence as “pathetic”.

Residents of St Patrick’s Gardens, Gravesend, say Omar Thomas, aged 24, got off lightly and spoke of their fear after he set up a crack den on the council estate.

Police raided the den after a two-week surveillance operation and arrested Thomas, of Gunner Lane, Woolwich, on April 28.

He was jailed on Friday after pleading guilty to two charges of possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply and one of possessing heroin with intent to supply.

But one 64-year-old man, who lived near Thomas’s rented flat and who asked not to be named, said residents of the small council estate would be disappointed the sentence was not longer. He said: “You wonder what the courts consider serious these days. This so-and-so was dealing drugs. What do you have to do to get locked up properly nowadays?

“It’s a pathetic sentence. Nobody wants someone like that on their doorstep.” A 22-year-old man, who also lived near Thomas, said: “How did he get just two-and-a-half years for class A drugs?

“He was a quiet guy. He didn’t talk a lot. You just keep out of it, don’t you?

“I came home and there were police everywhere. They stayed in there for about nine hours, searching the flat.” Police surveillance officers said over the course of one hour as many as 15 people visited the flat, which was yards from a children’s playground.

Detective Chief Inspector Colin Croucher, of north Kent police, said: “This is a very significant result as we have effectively shut down a crack cocaine operation before it was able to really embed itself in the area.”