JUNKIES should be given free heroin on the NHS to stop them turning to crime, Amy Winehouse's dad told MPs yesterday.

Ex-cabbie Mitch Winehouse, 58, said the move would help addicts as they attempted to kick drugs.

It would mean they would not feel the need to steal to buy supplies.

Amy Winehouse leaves home, gets in her dads taxi, and heads to 'The Clinic' in London, with what looks like an overnight bag. She is taken in by her dad, and shortly after, is joined by her manager.

Cleaned up ... Amy with her dad

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Mr Winehouse cited an experiment operated in Switzerland.

He said: "They have been prescribing heroin to their addicts for the past 15 years.

"You can argue that you are rewarding them by giving them heroin for free. But it helps stabilise and maintain them, giving them time to recover. While that's going on, our communities are safer. They are suffering less. They aren't being vandalised, robbed and burgled."

Mr Winehouse was giving evidence to an inquiry into the drugs crisis by the Commons home affairs committee.

His superstar daughter Amy, 26, has been clean of drugs for a year after her addiction plunged her pop career and marriage into meltdown.

Mr Winehouse, who is making a TV documentary about drug addiction, called for more resources to be devoted to rehab facilities.

At present, he said, only rich junkies like Amy could afford treatment.

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He claimed that many ordinary drug users resorted to crime in the hope that the courts would ensure they bypassed rehab waiting lists.

Meanwhile, said Mr Winehouse, non-offending addicts faced delays of up to a year.

That was refuted later by The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse.

It said waiting lists for drug treatment in England had fallen to an average of one week.