An Abbey Wood drug dealer has been jailed for 10 years after he was caught with £1.2m-worth of cocaine in his car.

Matthew Read, 34, formerly of Abbey Road, was pulled over by police as he left the M25 at Swanley on December 1 last year.

He pleaded guilty to possessing a class A drug with intent to supply and was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on April 22.

The court heard how Read was driving his rented Volkswagen Golf to a car park in Chafford Hundred, Essex, at about 1.15pm on the day in question.

He was seen to meet with a second man, who placed a package on the back seat in exchange for a carrier bag believed to have contained a quantity of cash. Both men then left the car park.

Police attempted to stop Read’s vehicle at Swanley but he made a failed attempt to ram his way clear, causing damage to the patrol cars and his own in the process.

A search of the Golf revealed two carrier bags containing a total of eight packages estimated to weigh 1kg each.

These were sent for testing and found to contain cocaine with an estimated value of £1.2m.

Investigating officer detective constable Dave Bull of the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate, said: “Matthew Read’s arrest resulted in a significant amount of class A drugs being removed from the streets of Kent.

“The cocaine was found to be of a purity between 93 and 97 per cent, which is remarkably high and considered to be of import quality.

“He was caught with a huge amount of cocaine in his possession, which I am in no doubt he intended to sell on.”