A DRUGS "custodian" found with £1,000 of cannabis avoided a prison sentence yesterday.

Police officers searched the home of Gareth Clydesdales' mother, in Stockton, with a trained search dog, which found a black plastic bag containing nine ounces of the drug.

Christine Egerton, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court that officers also found £400 at the house, on November 2, last year, and Clydesdale admitted the drugs were his.

She said initially, Clydesdale, of Thornaby Road, Thornaby, said he had bought the drugs while he was drunk and it was for his own personal use.

Paul Cleasby, for Clydesdale, 22, said his client had "got in with a bad crowd", who had prevailed upon him to look after the drugs and the money for a short time, and said he was not a dealer.

He was now in work as a chef and had good prospects.

Judge Les Spittle said if Clydesdale had been a "street dealer" he would have gone to prison, but said the role of looking after the drugs, and therefore making drug dealing easier, was a very serious offence.

He said that because of his personal circumstances, good prospects and guilty plea he would give him a nine months sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Clydesdale was ordered to pay £764 costs, and a forfeiture order and destruction order was passed for the drugs.

The £400 will go to the Chief Constable of Cleveland Police to help the fight against drugs.