A teenage dealer who had been selling drugs in the town centre for five months has been told he may not be jailed.

Mackson Cunha had thousands of pounds worth of heroin and cocaine when he was arrested during a police raid at his family home.

And when officers executed a search warrant in a dawn swoop they had to batter down his locked bedroom door.

Once inside they found hundreds of wraps worth of heroin, crack and powdered cocaine along with a mobile phone littered with messages advertising his business.

But after hearing he said he had been recruited into the business as he walked though a park on his way to college a judge put off passing sentence.

He said he was taking a chance and told him if he stayed out of trouble and either got into work or education he would not jail him.

George Threlfall, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how police went to his Station Road home on Monday February 5 last year.

Once inside they went up to his room and needed to use and enforcer to open the locked door, finding him asleep inside.

In the room they found a number boxes which contained wraps of white powder as well as cut up cling film.

There was also a quantity of brown powder and deals wrapped in cigarette paper which contained the same substance.

He said there were 139 wraps of heroin, which would sell for £10 each on the streets, and enough to make a further 104.

There was £100 worth of cocaine and about 14 deals of crack making the total value of the drugs more than £2,600.

Cunha, of Station Road, pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing drugs with intent to supply.

Delivering an oral report probation officer Jackie Reynolds said he told her how he became involved in the drugs trade.

She said he claimed he was walking through the County Ground park when he was approached by a male and asked if he wanted to make money selling drugs.

He initially refused but after it happened on another couple of occasions he relented and insists he was paid just £100 a week.

She said he had GCSEs and a business and finance qualification from college and wasn’t sure whether he wanted to continue studying or get work.

In the past she had been working in the security industry but said he had left the role to enable him to get legal aid.

“Looking at his CV on paper you would think ‘smart young man’. He was dealing drugs but not a user, he has smoked cannabis,” she said.

Tony Bignall, defending, said his client was only 18 at the time of the offending and had never been in trouble before.

He said he was ‘naive’ and being exploited after being picked off the streets on the way to college and been doing it for five months.

Deferring sentence to June 28 Judge Robert Pawson said “Presumably you have been told that the sentencing range for you is between three-and-a-half and seven years in prison.

“Mr Cunha, I am going to take a chance with you, almost against my better judgement.”