A DEALER who peddled kilos of cannabis worth tens of thousands on the streets of Swindon over a two-year period has walked free from court.

Antonio Nunes, who has a previous conviction for similar matters, said he did it as he battled a heroin addiction.

And after hearing much of the evidence against him came when he confessed to police after being arrested, a judge imposed a suspended sentence.

Rob Welling, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the 54-year-old was seen driving erratically on Commercial Road on the evening of Saturday June 10 last year.

After stopping him officers smelled cannabis and he handed over two small bags of the drug from his pocket and said there was more in the central console.

Officers then searched his home where they found a number of other grip seal bags with green herbal matter along with £760 in cash.

He said they also recovered 15 bottles of heroin substitute methadone which had been prescribed to him.

When he was questioned he accepted that he had been dealing cannabis for more than two years to fund his drug habits.

He would buy 56g grams, or two ounces, a week and keep 15g for himself selling the remainder for £10 a gram making him £410 a week.

The court heard that over the period he had been dealing he would have sold more than 4.2kg of the drug taking more than £42,000.

Mr Welling said that in 2002 he was convicted in Portugal of trafficking drugs for consumption and given three years, which the defendant said was suspended.

Nunes, of Whitney Street, pleaded guilty to possessing drugs with intent to supply and simple possession and being concerned in their supply from April 2015 to last June.

Giving an oral report probation officer Andy Pearson said that he told him he had not funded an extravagant lifestyle of the business.

He said that he had a number of friends in the Portuguese and Brazilian communities in the town and sold to them to fund his own drug use.

Although he lives alone he said that he has a girlfriend who has a good job and pays his rent so he is not on benefits, though he is not in work.

He said he had stropped using heroin in 2015 and was now off both methadone and cannabis.

Passing sentence Judge Robert Pawson said: “When you were interviewed by them you made a clean breast of it saying you were supporting your own heroin, methadone and cannabis habits."

He imposed two years suspended for 24 months with 150 hours' unpaid work and 15 days of rehabilitation activity requirement.