A Derby drug dealer won't be spending Christmas with his two young children after being jailed for the first time in his life at the age of just 24.
Nottingham Crown Court heard how police found £3,600 of heroin and crack cocaine when they searched a houseboat linked to Wayne Pegg moored at a marina.
Phones seized from him when his Mercedes was stopped also showed he had been sending out mass marketing messages to customers and receiving inquiries on prices from them.
Jailing him for two years and seven months, Judge Steve Coupland said: "You don't need me to tell you that class A drugs ruin lives.
"They ruin the lives of the people who sell them and they ruin the lives of the people who choose to buy and take them.
"Many cases that come before the courts involve class A drugs and the links to them and this case is aggravated because there were two different types of drugs.
"Set against that, you are still only 24, a very young man and this sentence will cause particular hardship for you because firstly it is your first taste of custody and secondly you will be separated from your two young children."
Raglan Ashton, prosecuting, said police stopped the Mercedes Pegg was driving at Redhill Marina, near Thrumpton, Nottinghamshire, on November 10, this year.
He said a search of the defendant uncovered dealer bags, two phones and £40 in cash.
The prosecutor said: "A search was conducted at a houseboat linked to the defendant at the marina and a number of significant items were recovered.
"There was 18.5g of heroin, rocks of crack cocaine weighing 10.5g and a further amount of crack cocaine weighing 6.88g.
"Mass marketing messages were also found to have been sent from the Nokia phone which was recovered and customers had sent messages to it requesting prices.
"It was evidence that the deals being sold were small and so the street value estimation is around £3,600."
Pegg, of Duchess Way, Chellaston, and who appeared over a video-link from HMP Nottingham for this week's hearing, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply both drugs and to a charge of being concerned in the supply of heroin.
He has no relevant previous convictions.
Darron Whitehead, mitigating, said his client acts as a carer for his grandparents, saying his grandmother has dementia and his grandfather is recovering from bowel cancer.
He said: "His early guilty pleas show an expression of regret and remorse.
"He has two young children aged four and 18 months and of course he has brought this to his own door but there will be some hardship for him and his children as he won't be there this Christmas."
A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, which could see Pegg stripped of any cash and assets, will take place on April 24.