A drug dealing couple have been warned to stay away from cannabis if they are to stay out of prison despite one defendant’s ‘chivalrous’ act.

William Davies and Zoe Bradley resorted to selling the Class B drug to fund their own long-term addiction.

And when police raided their Stockton home, Davies threw a box of drugs out of a window before telling officers that the drug operation was his alone.

Teesside Crown Court heard how officers recovered around £1,000 worth of the drug as well as a mobile phone used to conduct sales.

Davies told police: ‘Everything is mine. I send my girlfriend out to sell drugs. It was me who threw the box out of the window’.

The 27-year-old, of Edwards Street, Stockton, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply a Class B drug, and his 33-year-old partner pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Emma Williams, representing Bradley, said her client admitted her role at the first opportunity and deserved credit for her guilty plea.

“She is a regular cannabis smoker herself,” she added. “She is a low risk of reoffending as she has now cleared her debt.”

Kelleigh Lodge, representing Davies, said he started smoking cannabis aged 11 and has struggled with mental health issues since his late teens.

She added: “He was taking cannabis to help him cope after he was diagnosed with depression.”

Judge Chris Smith told the couple that is not a coincidence that young people smoking strong cannabis suffer  from mental health problems and recommended they address their drug problem.

“I have to deal with you both for the peddling of cannabis,” he said. “The cannabis sold these days is a million miles away from the stuff sold in the 70s and 80s – it is stronger.

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“The evidence suggests that it causes significant health problems for people who are taking it.

“It may well have been an act of chivalry to try and take full blame for this operation, I accept that this is your operation (Davies) and what you (Bradley) were doing was helping out in the business that you two had constructed.”

The judge gave the couple a chance to avoid prison and sentenced Davies to an 18-month community order including attending 32 rehabilitation activity requirement days and carry out 75 hours of unpaid work.

While Bradley was given a 12-month community order and told to attend ten rehabilitation activity requirement days.