A STUDENT who used his gap year to get a job working for a gang of drug dealers has been given a chance by a judge.

Samuel Antoniades first started acting as an accountant for the syndicate before going out on to the street selling heroin and crack cocaine on a wage of £70 a day.

But when the 21-year-old was caught with hundreds of pounds of stock in Penhill he told the police what he had been up to.

Now after hearing he was working at a service station and hoping to do music technology at Westminster University, a judge said he would put off passing sentence.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court police were called to reports of a man was burgling a house on Penhill Drive on Tuesday October 18.

They found Antoniades and while there was no evidence he was trying to break in, he was searched and found to have almost five-and-a-half grams of drugs.

The package contained 52 wraps of drugs which would sell on the streets for £10 each, he said, as well as £107.50 in cash.

He also had two mobile phones which contained messages relating to the trade in drugs and when he was questioned he admitted what he had been doing.

"He said he had been recruited effectively by a drug syndicate, initially as their accountant because he had a degree of education that they had not," he said.

Antoniades, of Crouch End, north London, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin with intent to supply.

The court was told that he was convicted of commercial burglary in the city in 2015 and was ordered to do community service.

Mike Pulsford, defending, said after his parents split his mother moved abroad while he was doing A levels.

After getting Btecs in creative media he got a place at Westminster but decided to take a year off.

"He decided he needed a gap year, and then decided to earn some money to go in to university this coming September," he said.

"He has a friend who is a heroin addict. He became addicted to heroin in the summer of last year. He was addicted for nine weeks."

Since his arrest he aid he had not touched drugs and for the past five-and-a-half months has been working in a service station earning £220 a week.

Speaking from the dock he said he had not taken the unpaid work seriously but was now knuckling down to get it done.

Judge Robert Pawson told him the guidelines for sentence meant he could face a three year jail term.

He said "You are 21 years of age, you have got your whole life ahead of you Mr Antoniades.

"You were given a chance in 2015 and I am impressed by your candour, or straightforwardness, when you tell me that you didn't take the order too seriously.

"Any sentence over two years can't be suspended, if it was three years you would go with that man behind you and downstairs and serve half of it in custody.

"That, I am sure you understand, is a life-changer. Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.

"I am just, and I mean just Mr Antoniades, persuaded that properly you performed a lesser role of category three and the starting point is three years custody.

"I am not sure what to do with you. I am not sure what is best for you or best for the public.

"I am persuaded just to give you a chance. It may be in the future you look back and today was a pivotal day in your life. I am going to give you a chance. What I am going to do is defer sentence."

He told him if he stayed out of trouble and continued on the unpaid work he would not send him to jail on Friday August 4.