ACTOR JAILED FOR DEALING IN DRUGS

John Alford, the star of the television series London's Burning, was jailed
yesterday for nine months for supplying cocaine and cannabis.

The disgraced actor, sacked from the series when his involvement with drugs
became public, was caught on camera clinching a deal with an undercover
journalist pretending to be an Arabian royal.

Judge Stephen Robbins told Alford, 27, below, that although entrapment by
the News of the World played a part in the situation, he was "undoubtedly
motivated by the desire to earn even more money than [he was] earning as a
successful actor."

The judge said: "There was a strong element of entrapment, but you willingly
went along with the idea. You had plenty of opportunity when you left to
fetch these drugs to distance yourself from it."

The judge told the former TV firefighter that he also had to bear in mind
that he had previously used cocaine heavily himself, spending sometimes up
to UKP500 on his habit, before weaning himself off it. He reminded the
actor, who was ordered to pay UKP3,000 costs, that he had told the court of
seeing friends "go down the road to hell from this drug".

The judge said: "People in such circumstances who then agree to supply that
very same drug can expect little mercy from the courts."