POLICE raided a man's house and found £2,000 worth of cannabis in a kitchen drawer.

The drugs were being looked after by unemployed Kevin Topping as a favour for a friend, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Topping, 37, of Ninth Street, Blackhall, east Durham, told officers he had been approached by an acquaintance while drinking in Hartlepool.

He had been asked to take care of the cannabis as a favour until another man returned from holiday.

But no one claimed the drugs and they were seized by police in a raid this year.

They had been hidden in a compartment behind a false drawer, the court was told.

Topping, who had a string of convictions dating back to 1977, admitted possession of a class B drug with intent.

Robert Galley, for Topping, said he was acting as a custodian for someone else "more sophisticated" who was involved in the drugs trade.

Judge Peter Fox accepted that Topping was in a quandary over what to do with the drugs.

But he had agreed in the first place to take care of the cannabis for someone else.

Sentencing Topping to nine months in prison, Judge Fox said he had taken into account that he had not been in trouble with the police for four years and had no previous convictions for drugs offences.