FORTUNATELY Swindon magistrates do not appear to have been overly influenced by the claim that 31-year-old Anthony Gallagher's crime was at the bottom of the scale of drug offences.

The fact is that Gallagher was driving a car to enable a dealer to sell heroin, the class A cause of degradation and even death for countless people. He was therefore rightly charged with supplying the drug. He more than deserves every minute of the 200 hours of community service to which he was sentenced.

And we can all be reassured that the drugs swoop in which he was caught came about because public-spirited people were willing to tell what they knew about people suspected of being caught up in this vicious trade.

They could do so safely by calling the Advertiser-backed Swindon Drugs Hotline.

Please keep up that flow of information. If you do we can look forward to other round-ups like the one that led to the arrests of 15 people, including Anthony Gallagher.

And you will be helping to remove scum from our streets.