Tara Holowienka (27) has been addicted to the deadly drug for 15 years, and had first started sniffing lighter fluid at the age of eight, Peterborough Crown Court heard yesterday.

After spending years in and out of court, Judge Nicholas Coleman remarked that it was the best he had seen her yesterday, after she had finally detoxified.

But Holowienka, of Ledham, Orton Brimbles, Peterborough, was still jailed for three years after she pleaded guilty to six counts of supplying heroin and crack cocaine.

It was her second prison sentence for dealing drugs – she was jailed for 18 months in 2003.

She was warned that a third conviction would mean a seven-year prison sentence.

Mitigating, Hugh Vass said Holowienka had only three choices when it came to funding such a "strong" addiction. The first was returning to prostitution, but an anti-social behaviour order prevented her from doing that, second was through crime or third to sell drugs.

Her boyfriend, James Negus (27), who has been a heroin addict for 10 years – the same length as their relationship – was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting four counts of supplying Class A drugs, plus an extra six months for an attempted burglary.

Negus, of Ledham, Orton Brimbles, Peterborough, was said to help Holowienka "distribute" the drugs – however, they were only paid in drugs or spent the cash made from sales to buy more drugs for themselves.

The pair were caught by Operation Abolish, a police undercover operation during the summer.

Mr Vass questioned the need for a police swoop targeting dealers who were selling drugs to fund their own habit.

He said: "Whether police operations such as Abolish have any great success in the long term is not for me or the court to speculate."

But Judge Coleman defended the police role when sentencing the pair, he said: "You were engaging in the supply of Class A drugs, heroin and crack cocaine, part of a disturbing picture in this city which the police are entirely right to address."