A DRUG dealer who sold cannabis and cocaine for profit was told 'nobody came closer than him to going to prison' than him.

Burnley Crown Court heard Callum Lee Elcock, 26, was found with a rucksack containing cannabis with a street value of £280, a white-handled lock knife and weighing scales when he was stopped by police in New Line, Bacup, on May 11, 2015.

Prosecutor Stephen Parker said police seized Elcock’s phone and discovered text messages mainly relating to dealing cannabis, but there were also three specifically referring to selling cocaine.

Father-of-one Elcock, of Cooper Street, Bacup, pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply, being concerned in the supply of cocaine and possessing a bladed article in a public place.

He pleaded guilty to the cocaine offence on the basis he occasionally supplied it to a small group of associates with no commercial element.

But Judge Beverley Lunt rejected that basis and said he was a drug dealer who was doing it for profit.

Mr Parker said one of the text messages on Elcock’s phone from a contact called ‘Adam B’ read: “Have you got any sniff pal? It’s Adam. I’m Jake’s friend.”

Mr Parker said that message was referring to cocaine.

On November 7, 2014, Adam B sent another message to Elcock, which read: “I’m after a 30 and a 20 if you can. How much longer are you going to be.”

Elcock responded by saying: “Are you after bud or the other?”

Adam B wrote: “Just sniff.”

Mr Parker said the word ‘bud’ was a reference to cannabis and ‘sniff’ to cocaine.

The court heard there was another message from October 2014 where the customer asked Elcock: “Is there any chance you can do me a gram of power and a gram of standard?”

Mr Parker said that message also related to cocaine.

When Elcock was arrested he answered ‘no comment’ to all questions asked by police.

Gerard Doran, defending, said his client’s life was in a dark place around the time of the incident after he started taking drugs following a car crash. But he said he had since turned it around and was expecting his second child.

Mr Doran said: “He is now in good and firm employment.

“I submit there is an alternative available to the court which would not require this defendant to go immediately to custody, particularly the fact he has been out of trouble for a long time and his family situation.

“There is a reference to cocaine but it is fleeting and rarely do you see it in his phone that was used for his drug-dealing conversations.”

Judge Lunt jailed Elcock for 24 months, but suspended the sentence for two years.

She said: “You were dealing drugs for financial gain.

“Drug dealers go to prison. I accept you regret what you did. I accept you have tried to put your life back together and won’t do this in the future.

“Noone has come closer than you to going to prison.”