A DRUG courier was tracked across fields by a police dog and found hiding in a haystack after he fled from officers.

William Free was transporting £1,400 of high purity cocaine from Taunton to Barnstaple when police stopped his BMW on the A361 at Landkey, Devon.

He threw down the car keys and sprinted off when police told him they were going to search his car, jumping over fences as he ran towards farm buildings.

A police dog named Grommit followed his trail into a barn, where he found Free hiding in a pile of hay bales.

He gave himself up to police when the handler threatened to release the German Shepherd.

Officers later found two golf ball sized lumps of 91 per cent pure cocaine in the central console of his car with a combined weight of just under 14 grams. A phone with orders for drugs was also seized.

Free, 24, of Angersleigh, near Taunton, admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply and was ordered to do 300 hours unpaid community work and 15 days of rehabilitation activities by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

The judge said he was not sending him to prison because he has turned his life around in the ten month since he was arrested and is living a stable life with a partner and a steady job as a scaffolder.

Gareth Evans, prosecuting, said police were monitoring Free's BMW as it headed from Somerset to Devon on the M5 and North Devon Link Road on August 2 last year.

He was pulled over at Landkey and was initially co-operative, but his attitude changed when he realised officers were searching for drugs.

Mr Evans said: "He threw the car keys on the floor and made off on foot.

"He ran along the verge of the A361 and crossed to the other side of the road, went through a hedge, over a fence and into fields.

"The police gave chase and saw him heading towards farm buildings. They summoned the police dog Grommit which indicated towards a large stack of hay bales.

"The handler shouted to the defendant if he did not come down, he would release the dog. He stood up, came out of the bales, and was arrested."

Harry Ahuja, defending, said Free's only role was delivering the drugs on behalf of others and his only reward was to be a supply of some cocaine for himself.

He said he became involved with drugs as a way of coping with ADHD when he was a teenager and had moved on to develop a heavy cocaine habit.

His naivety had been exploited by those higher up the supply chain.

Mr Ahuja said Free stopped using cocaine on the day of his arrest and has been using a Chinese herbal therapist to wean himself off cannabis.