A CANNABIS dealer from Clifton in York was caught out by police after they found money in his pocket which smelled of the drug.

When Adam John Humpherson was arrested on a non-drug related matter, officers found £180 in his pocket smelling strongly of cannabis, York Crown Court heard.

Simon Ostler, prosecuting, said police found a debtor list containing 21 names as well as 25 text messages on Humpherson’s mobile phone about cannabis dealing.

Three years ago, York Crown Court heard how the factory worker turned up the music in his house so loud, noise enforcement officers called round. They were accompanied by police, who, as soon as they were in the property, could smell the cannabis which Humpherson had growing in his loft. That earned him at least nine months in jail.

But when he returned to the same court to answer for his latest crime, Judge Roger Ibbotson allowed him to go free, because he was on a suspended prison sentence for an unrelated crime imposed by York magistrates after his arrest with the money smelling of cannabis.

“You have a very bad record for dealing in cannabis. The fact you personally don’t think it should be illegal is entirely irrelevant. It is illegal,” the judge told him.

He gave him a community order with 200 hours’ unpaid work and confiscated the £180 so it could go towards the prosecution’s £1,200 costs. “To a large degree my hands have been tied by the magistrates,” the judge said.

Humpherson, 26, of Cromer Street, Clifton, pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis between April 30 and May 6 last year.

His barrister, Jon Gregg, said: “Whatever one thinks of Adam Humpherson’s views, and undoubtedly most law-abiding and right- thinking people abhor them, he holds these views, as some people in society also do.”

He said his client had only sold cannabis to friends and used the proceeds to fund his own cannabis use.

He had part-time work at a chocolate factory and hoped to go full-time.