A mother who ran a drugs shop from the house in which her three children lived has failed in a bid to get her sentence cut.

Andrea Kelly's three young children roamed freely around the flat in which she kept stashes of deadly drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, London's Criminal Appeal Court heard yesterday.

Kelly, 33, of Laburnum Avenue, Hangleton, Hove, was sentenced to five and a half years in jail after pleading guilty to three counts of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply at Lewes Crown Court on January 10 last year.

Mr Justice Stanley Burnton, sitting at London's Court of Criminal Appeal, refused her application to have her sentence cut, despite her previous good character, saying her activities had poured misery on to the streets.

The judge told the court how police raided Kelly's flat on December 29, 2000, and discovered her children playing in rooms containing over 500 ecstasy tablets, 20.95g of cocaine and a quantity of LSD.

The sentencing judge had said she was "running a drugs shop where customers could choose from a menu of what was on offer", Mr Justice Burnton said.

The judge, sitting with Lord Justice Tuckey and Judge Simon Fawcus, said: "It has been said time and time again in this court, that good character and hardship to the family of an appellant carries a good deal less weight when combined with involvement in this filthy trade and the misery they pour upon the streets at huge profit to themselves."

The judge refused her application to appeal against her sentence and also dismissed an application to appeal against conviction.