A SELF-EMPLOYED plasterer caught drink-driving just months after being convicted of dealing in ketamine has been spared jail.

Joshua O’Connor, then of Jubilee Road, Haslingden, was said to have been earning £30,000 a year - and supplementing his income by handing out the drug to a circle of friends.

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At Burnley Crown Court in January he was given a 24-week jail sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting possession of ketamine with intent to supply.

Prosecutor David Traynor said police saw O’Connor driving slowly along Newchurch Road at around 1am, in a Ford Transit van and his vehicle was followed.

He was pulled over in St Peter’s Road and gave a positive roadside breath test.

Later a blood alcohol test gave a reading of 225mg per 100ml - the legal limit for driving is 80mg.

The court heard that O’Connor also had a drink-driving conviction dating back to 2006, for which he received a 12-month ban.

Christian Kavanagh, defending, said: “Quite simply, the defendant is petrified at the prospect of a custodial sentence.”

He told the court that the latest conviction was for a dissimilar offence and O’Connor had completed a 100-hour community service order, also imposed for the drug-dealing conviction.

The defendant now lived with his mother at her home in Burnley Road, Bacup, said Mr Kavanagh.

“The previous conviction came at a time when he was living with friends,” he added.

Passing sentence, Recorder Simon Medland QC said he had noted the different nature of the present offence and that O’Connor had established he could be a hard-working member of society.

O’Connor, who pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol, was given a four-month electronically-monitored curfew and banned from driving for three years. He was also fined £750.