A FORMER window cleaner who was spared jail last year after making a 'career choice' to become a cannabis dealer is behind bars after returning to the trade.

Just months after being put on a suspended sentence Reece Hicks was back making money from drugs claiming his new work as a roofer had dried up.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that the 25-year-old had been put on a one year suspended sentence in July last year.

But on Thursday March 16 this year police raided his home on Deerhurst Way, Toothill, and found half a pound of herbal cannabis worth up to £2,130.

He said they also recovered £590 in cash, electronic scales, grinders and mobile phones which contained messages relating to the drugs trade.

Hicks, now of Chesterfield Close, Westlea, admitted possessing the class B drug with intent to supply.

Mr Meeke said that he had a history of crime with robbery and violence in his early years with simple possession of drugs earlier in the decade.

In July last year he said he received the 12 month sentence suspended for two years after being caught with nine ounces of the drug, worth up to £8,000.

Police also found £1,370 cash and a mobile phone with drugs messages when he was arrested in April 2016, Mr Meeke said.

Hicks, who turned to selling drugs when his window cleaning enterprise failed, sold up to £360 of cannabis a week for about four months.

At his sentencing last year, where the judge labelled his offending a 'career choice' the court was told that he had not smoked any drugs since his arrest.

Giving an oral report at the latest hearing Karen Fowler, of probation, said after being put on a suspended sentence he had a job as a roofer, but work dried up in the winter.

"He was struggling with bills so consequently he went back to what he knew. He said he was selling over a period of two to three months," she said.

"He said he was living with his father: he told him to sell drugs to make some money. He said his father provided with the contact he could get drugs from."

Since his latest arrest she said he has moved into a shared house with his girlfriend, who has health issues, and is back working full time.

"He tells me he has no intention of taking or selling drugs again: he has far too much to lose," she said.

Richard Williams, defending, said if he was jailed then he and his partner risk losing their accommodation as he is the main bread winner.

He said that he had tried to better himself and asked for a final chance as others would be badly affected by his incarceration.

Jailing him for 16 months Judge Robert Pawson said: "I am pretty unimpressed with 'My dad encouraged me'. He took his own view to get involved in it to make money.

"You made a conscious choice to go back to dealing drugs for financial reasons.

"Sometimes custody is a blunt tool but there comes a time when someone in your position has been given a chance by the court and I am afraid Mr Hicks you have no one but yourself to blame."