POLICE got an unusual surprise after a drug dealing cabbie was found using Kinder Eggs to hide bags of mephedrone in his taxi.

The 10-month scheme to sell the drugs was brought to an end after officers arrested Banbury taxi driver Abad Hussain on February 25 last year.

The 40-year-old, of Grimsbury Drive in the town, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Friday having already pleaded guilty last month to possessing and supplying the class B drug, also known as m-cat or meow meow.

When he was first arrested by police they found 14g of the drug, with a street value of about £400, on his person, before discovering the boxes of Kinder Eggs in the glove compartment of his taxi, containing traces of the drug.

Jonathan Stone, prosecuting, told the court: "Police were looking to arrest him for something other than drugs but found the drugs in his taxi and on his person.

"They found Kinder Eggs in the glove compartment, which is often used to transport the drugs, and traces of m-cat were found."

Under police interview he initially denied any involvement in selling the drugs.

Mr Stone added: "Mr Hussain said the eggs had been given to him by his children but couldn't say why they had zip-sealed bags inside of them."

Police also discovered a Samsung mobile phone which had messages to one customer.

The customer was found to be Chantelle Graves, with whom Hussain had previously had an affair and who he had sold the drugs to over a 10-month period.

In messages read out to court, transactions to buy the drugs were agreed between him and Ms Graves in an arrangement which lasted from April 2015 until February 2016, when he was arrested.

Hussain's defence argued that the taxi driver of 16 years in the Banbury, Brackley and Chipping Norton area had 'suffered enough' having since lost his job as a result of the drug dealing.

Judge Ian Pringle decided to spare Hussain prison and handed him a community order instead.

He said: "The supply of class B drugs usually means you will be sent to prison.

"However, I accept that you were really only supplying one person, although you were supplying her for quite some period of time."

He was ultimately sentenced to a community order for a period of two years, to include 240 hours of unpaid work and 15 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement as well as paying a statutory victim surcharge.