A DRUG dealer who smoked a cannabis joint in Micklegate outside the door of his home as police were walking past has received a community order.

Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said the officers immediately investigated when they smelt the drug. They found just under a pound of cannabis in Maurice Adair’s York home, plus 6g of cocaine, 759 mg of Ecstasy and 33g of magic mushrooms.

They also found texts on his mobile phone indicating he had been selling the cannabis, as well as drug paraphernalia, and arrested him.

Adair’s solicitor Sally Howard said he had been using cannabis since he was first given a joint at school as a 12-year-old boy, and his arrest had been a wake-up call for him.

“He is a fairly naïve young man. He never saw cannabis as a problem – he mixes with people who smoke cannabis. It has been part and parcel of his life for a very long time.

“He has learnt his lesson. This has been a great shock for him.”

Adair, 22, pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply it to others and possession of cocaine, Ecstasy and psilocin, a psychedelic chemical found in magic mushrooms, for his own use. All except cannabis are Class A drugs.

York magistrates ordered him to do 200 hours’ unpaid work and pay £85 prosecution costs and an £85 statutory surcharge.

Mrs Howard said he had been selling cannabis for about a month to fund the addiction he had had since he was 15.

He had originally been a bike mechanic, but had been made redundant. Since then he had worked as a chef, supplementing his income by repairing bikes for friends. But that had not enabled him to both meet his normal living expenses and his daily cannabis.

So he had started supplying cannabis to his friends. He had not sold on the streets.

He was now hoping to go to college and get qualifications as a chef and had voluntarily started counselling to kick his habit.