A member of the Basingstoke Street Gang has been charged with drug dealing after he was allegedly found with 15 wraps of heroin.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has appeared in court charged with possession with intent to supply the Class A drug.

The court was told that the boy, banned from meeting his peers in the gang by a court injunction issued in March, was in possession of the drugs in Basingstoke last Wednesday, May 5.

He has been remanded into custody ahead of his next appearance before Basingstoke Magistrates' Court on Friday (May 14). No pleas have been entered at this stage.

The youth was one of ten teenagers, aged 16 and 17, banned from meeting each other by a gang injunction issued by the court earlier this year.

The boys will all be required to cease contact with one another for the next two years and engage with education and children’s services - with five also instructed that they may only have one phone and SIM card.

It means that, should they be caught breaching the order by meeting, they can be arrested and subject to criminal proceedings.

Making the order earlier this year, District Judge Tim Pattinson said: “The Chief Constable of Hampshire has asked me to make orders called a gang injunction.

“The incidents covered in the papers covered a lengthy period. It is beyond credibility in my view to suggest that the youth offending team or children’s services just rubber-stamp something that is going to involve them a substantial amount of work if an injunction is made.

“There is an immense amount of evidence. The general evidence is from a number of persons but in particular Sergeant Ian Davies who sets the scene and paints a picture of a very real problem in Basingstoke involving actual violence, threats of violence, robberies, possession of weapons and evidence of drug dealing.

“It’s misconceived to view individual cases as requiring lengthy records of convictions, although some of you do have convictions.”

The judge added that charts provided to him indicate a “web of contacts” between the teens, “which in my view are entirely consistent with gang activity.”