A MAN on trial for drugs offences said he had no idea why stashes of heroin and crack cocaine were in his home.

Samuel Hillaire, 39, of Marsden, is charged with possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

At Leeds Crown Court yesterday the jury heard police interviews with Huddersfield-born Hillaire, when he denied any knowledge of heroin and crack cocaine that was found at his home in Dirker Avenue and a house he rented on Elizabeth Street, Wakefield.

He also denied that thousands of pounds worth of furniture and clothing were bought from the proceeds of drug deals.

The homes were raided by police on February 11, 2004.

Hillaire told police a handbag containing drugs and some scales were at the Wakefield house when he moved in.

He said: "As for knowing anything about the drugs at Elizabeth Street that's a no no. There are other people with access to the address."

He said he rented the house when he moved out of Dirker Avenue after an argument with his partner of 12 years, Lisa Wrigley, about Christmas, 2002.

He said he kept the address in case of "another barney" and only went to Wakefield to sign on for his £103 weekly Jobseeker's Allowance.

Heroin and crack cocaine were also found at Dirker Avenue, where Hillaire's daughters, Leah, two, and Georgia, six, live with Mrs Wrigley.

Hillaire said he knew nothing of the drugs, except potent skunk cannabis he kept for his own use.

He denied knowledge of drugs found in a parka coat, which he said had been in his Renault Laguna car that had been lent to a friend that week. The car was found to contain crack cocaine wraps.

A total of £9,570 in cash was found at the Dirker Avenue house.

Unemployed Hillaire's last recorded job was at Dewsbury Sports Centre in 1996. He told police he had worked as a car dealer for several years.

Det Con Alex Lloyd, who interviewed Hillaire, asked how he and Mrs Wrigley could afford to spend £2,613 on kitchen units and £1,860 on kitchen appliances for the Dirker Avenue house.

Mrs Wrigley, a full-time student, also spent hundreds of pounds a time in Air and Pink Cadillac clothing shops in Huddersfield.

Det Con Lloyd said he saw wardrobes full of expensive designer children's clothes at Dirker Avenue.

He said: "I was flabbergasted with the quantity and quality of the clothes in that bedroom."

He told Hillaire: "You don't have the money you say you spend. You have an alternative source of income."

Hillaire said the cash found was savings and said the clothes were high street brands.

He added: "Is this jealousy? Can two people with kids not try to live the best way they can? We make ends meet."

He admitted taking cocaine in the past and his barrister, Tim Bubb, told the jury Hillaire was jailed in August, 1997, for possessing cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamines with intent to supply.

But Hillaire said he was no longer into drugs.

He said: "They are very serious controlled substances and I would have nothing to do with them.

"It's all alien to me, this drug talk."

The case continues.