TWO drug dealers have been jailed for a total of 11 years following a car and helicopter police chase which found one hiding in a garden armed with a sawn-off shotgun.

The driver, Mohammed Akib Bhatti, 18, from Leytonstone, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for dangerous driving, driving uninsured, failing to stop for police and for intent to supply drugs, at the Old Bailey on Friday (October 14).

Sharif Bako, 26, from Finsbury Park, faces a heavier sentence of nine-and-a-half years after police recovered a sawn-off shotgun and a bag full of drugs in the garden he was hiding from police.

On Friday, April 15, just after 9.30pm officers from Haringey attempted to make a routine stop to a green Vauxhall Zafira being driven erratically.

The car, which was on false plates, was eventually stopped on Twyford Avenue in East Finchley and Bhatti was arrested.

Bako fled the car on foot and was eventually found in a nearby garden after a dog unit and a police helicopter found him.

A bag was then found with the sawn-off shotgun, cash and Class A drugs.

Detective constable Ian Lamb said: "There is no reason why anyone should be driving around London with a loaded shotgun in their car.

“The evidence presented before the court gave Bako and Bhatti no option but to plead guilty.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight the work by my colleagues in Haringey.

“It was their intuition that led to these men being stopped that night and a firearm being taken off the streets."