A MAN who was involved in peddling heroin and crack cocaine has avoided jail because it took more than a year to bring him to sentence.

Mark Dennis admitted he had been selling the drugs for 18 months after he was arrested at a notorious dealers’ haunt.

The 21-year-old was told by a judge that had he been sentencing him a year ago he would be sending him straight to jail and not passing a suspended sentence.

But as he had managed to sort out his life in the interim and was due to be a father soon, he imposed a suspended sentence.

Although police found just a small bag of cannabis on him and nothing at his home, they searched his mobile phone and uncovered a series of text messages showing he had been selling the hard drugs for a long time.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Dennis was arrested in Canal Walk shortly before 7.30pm on Thursday, December 2, 2010.

She said when officers detained him, they found the class B drugs on him.

When they searched his home, they found a number of bags and wrappings for drugs but no actual narcotics.

“There were text messages which suggested dealing in heroin and crack cocaine,” she said.

Dennis, of Kingshill Road, pleaded guilty to three counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs between June 2009 and December 2010.

He admitted the offences on the basis that while he sold drugs to members of the public, it was to fund his own addiction.

Tony Bignall, defending, said his client was aware of the possibility of a lengthy jail term despite the fact that he was not a commercial dealer.

He said in the 14 months since he was arrested his client had managed to beat the addiction which had plagued him at the time.

In the next few months, he said, he was due to become a father for the first time which had made him realise ‘there are more important things than messing about with drugs’.

He said he had managed to get sporadic employment, including work at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

Although he was selling drugs to make a small profit, he said, it was simply to allow him to be able to fund his own habit.

“He was buying in relatively small quantities, using some, then selling the drugs on,” he said.

Passing sentence, Recorder James Watson QC said: “Were I dealing with you a year ago the judgment that I were likely to reach was this was a case that simply had to follow the guidelines and one had to look at a starting point of 18 months to two years and immediate custody.

“Fortunately for you we are not a year ago, we are now in February 2012, and in the intervening period not only is there a basis of plea that limits the extent of your offending on this occasion but there is also an effective plea made on your behalf that could not have been made a year ago and that plea has been made in both pre-sentence report and in the plea advanced by your counsel.

“There seems to be objective evidence that since last year, since the time of these offences, that you have made real progress in your life and in relation to your previous drug addiction.”

He imposed a one-year jail term suspended for 18 months and told him to undergo supervision and go on the thinking skills programme.