A COCAINE-DEALING dad who hid some of his profits in his three-year-old son’s bedroom has walked free from court.

Kieran Holmes stashed cash around the house after he turned to supplying drugs to street dealers when he was off work sick.

Sparing him jail a judge told him: "Some might say you have been extremely fortunate to escape by the skin of your teeth from going to prison today."

Ellen McAnaw, prosecuting, said police raided the 26-year-old’s family home on New Years Eve 2017 with a warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Hidden inside a barbecue in the garden they found about £800 worth of high grade cocaine along with a set of scales. In the house they recovered about 57g of cannabis, worth about £500, and a very small amount of ecstasy.

She said “A quantity of cash, £3,770, was seized. It was stored in separate location in the house.

“Quite a large quantity in two envelopes in a box file. A large quantity was in a pillow case.”

She said a mobile phone was found and after it was analysed it was found to be littered with messages relating to the drugs trade.

One suggested someone owed him £2,400, another asked for an ‘eight ball’ which is slang for an eighth of an ounce of cocaine.

There were also texts from people asking him to ‘reload’ them, which is a term used for restocking a street dealer.

When he was questioned he repeatedly lied to the police saying the money was from a tax rebate and he had been saving the cocaine for himself.

Holmes, of Chives Way, Haydon Wick, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply and simple possession of ecstasy.

Probation officer Jackie Reynolds said he told her had been employed as a ground worker since leaving school but injured his foot in 2016 leaving him unemployed.

She said he couldn’t explain why he did not claim benefits and started using drugs and then selling them to make money.

After his arrest she said the social services looked into them as they had a child in the house but they are no longer involved, she said.

“Some of the money was found in the little boy’s bedroom. He said I am sorry, while I was thinking about my family in terms of money, but he didn’t think what would happen to them,” she said.

Gregory Gordon, defending, said his client was the sole bread winner and paid the rent on the housing association property.

Were he jailed he said his partner and their child would suffer and he is terrified about the prospect of going to prison.

Passing sentence Judge Robert Pawson said “I have listened carefully to what Mr Gordon has said. He relies on certain points of mitigation.

“The first is you started doing this when you were ill and couldn’t work. That was a poor piece of mitigation. You could have sought benefits. It wouldn’t of course have paid as well as drug dealing but then it wouldn’t have been dealing class A drugs which bring misery to other people.”

He imposed a two-year jail term suspended for 24 months with 10 days rehabilitation activity requirement, 300 hours unpaid work and an eight-month curfew.