A MAN who had thousands of pounds worth of 'rubbish' cannabis which he was selling to friends has been spared a jail term.

Jordan Lane had half a kilogram of the drug which he insisted was low grade stuff from the 'bottom of the barrel'.

But after hearing the 20-year-old was now in work and moved away from drugs a judge said he did not need to pass an immediate jail term.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how police raided the 20-year-old's Middleaze home on Friday, July 18, last year.

Inside they found more than 580 grams of cannabis in various places as well as a small quantity of cocaine.

"Some of the cannabis had been put into small snap seal bags, some was in larger quantities, and there was spare bags as well, together with an iPhone which was seized but not analysed," she said.

"When asked what the PIN was he declined to tell them and then said he had forgotten what it was."

She said drugs squad officers valued the haul of cannabis at being between £4,000 and £4,800.

"His basis of plea states that he had paid no more than £1,000 in total for it," she told the court.

"He said he got to know local dealers who let him have the rubbish stuff, the bottom of the consignment, at low cost.

"He said he only ever supplied friends and friends of friends: not members of the general public.

"That is on the back of an interview in which he answered 'no comment' to all questioned simply saying all the drugs at the premises belonged to him not other members of the family."

Lane, of Castleton Road, Middleaze, admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply and simple possession of cocaine.

Mike Pulsford, defending, said his client had started using cannabis for pain relief after suffering a bad football injury when he was 14.

"As Your Honour knows from many cases before the court cannabis can become addictive, perhaps in the mind," he said.

He said he and a group of friends bought the large consignment of drugs and he was left holding them.

"The quantity may be worrying but the quality my client was concerned about was the rubbish from the bottom of the barrel."

Since his arrest he said his client had undergone an operation on his knee and he was now able to walk properly again so he no linger needs the drug for pain relief.

He is also working full time in the call centre for a furniture retailer, he said, where they are aware of his conviction.

Passing sentence Judge Peter Blair QC said: "When I first read these papers I had in mind that you were most unlikely to be successful in the suggested basis of plea that you first put in given the amount of cannabis that was seized, albeit not of a great quality.

"And your revised basis of plea which now means we don't have to have a hearing as to what the true position was is a sensible one.

"The information I have now got from what your solicitor said and the medical record sent to me and the presentence report leads me to the conclusion I don't have to send you immediately to a youth offenders' institute today."

He imposed a one-year jail term suspended for 18 months with supervision and told him to do a thinking skills programme and 140 hours of unpaid work.