A DRUG dealer caught with heroin and cocaine in a police raid has been spared jail after he satisfied a judge that he had kicked the habit for good.
Mark Collins, of no fixed abode, had denied two counts of being concerned with the supply of class A drugs – one count each for heroin and cocaine – but was convicted following a trial in July this year.
At his deferred sentencing at Oxford Crown Court on Monday, the court head how the 43-year old had been a drug addict before the offences and the discovery of drugs at an address in Faringdon between March 8 and April 3 last year.
When police executed a warrant and broke down his door they discovered an unspecified quantity of heroin and cocaine, as well as a mobile phone.
There was also £120 in cash, which was seized by officers following a search of the flat.
In mitigation, Ronan McCann told the court that his client, despite suffering from ill health partly brought on by long-term substance abuse, had fought his drug addition and was now 'completely abstinent' from drugs.
He added that he had gone so far as to refuse all opiate based substitutes to treat his addiction as a means to stay clear of drugs.
Sentencing, Judge Maria Lamb said that she would not send him straight to jail partly because since his conviction he had obeyed the terms of a drug rehabilitation requirement as part of his earlier deferred sentence.
She said: "I am very pleased to see that you have remained drug free and that you don't socialise with any drug [involved] friends and you remain in full time employment.
"As you have done all that the court has asked of you and more I will pass a suspended sentence."
Collins was given a two-year jail term for the two counts, suspended for two years.
He was also made subject to a community order to include a drug rehabilitation requirement for six months and a rehabilitation activity requirement for 20 days.
The £120 in cash was also seized and he must pay a statutory victim surcharge.
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