A man who spent £900 a month of his girlfriend's money on cannabis before dealing it to his friends has narrowly avoided a jail sentence.

Kieran Packer, 19, appeared at Preston's Sessions House on Thursday charged with supplying the class B drugs between September and December last year.

Packer, of Abbott Clough Close in Blackburn, was handed a suspended sentence by Judge Graham Knowles QC after pleading guilty to the offences at an earlier hearing at Blackburn Magistrates Court.

Prosecuting, Frank Dillon, said: "The crown say Packer was involved in the intermittent supply to friends and associates and was not looking to supply to the wider community.

"He was a user of cannabis himself and was taking advantage of his contacts to supply to others and in turn fund his own supply.

"He was arrested at his home address as part of an operation on December 3 last year, and a mobile phone and drugs were seized."

The court heard how Packer had been and still was in a stable relationship but his drug use was funded by his girlfriend's income, and when that started to cause difficulties for the young couple, he began dealing.

In his defence, the court was told that he hadn't taken any cannabis for four months, and had 'learned the error of his ways, but it had taken a short, sharp, shock for him to do so'.

Judge Knowles said: "You spent a lot of your time smoking cannabis and you now say you have nothing to do with it and your eyes have been opened.

"That maybe so but I very much doubt it.

"I think the reality is that everyone in your circle likes cannabis and doesn't like that it's illegal. I have seen enough of your Snapchats and texts which show me this time and time again.

"The pre-sentence report says you are immature and would benefit from a lot of talking to, but I think you knew you were committing an offence.

"Everyone knows that these are crimes and everyone knows that in sentencing there is a world of difference between the user and the dealer.

"The great majority of users wouldn't think about dealing but you did.

"You said you were spending £900 a month of money you didn't have, and that's why you set about dealing and that's why you wanted to set about dealing.

"You started small but you wanted to do it on a large scale knowing the type of money that was involved.

"You should be thankful to all the officers and prosecutors that the picture they gave to me is that I do not need to put you in jail today, but you came that close to it, and it is time you made a decision about your life."

Packer was handed a four month sentence suspended for 12 months, ordered to carry out 15 days of rehabilitation activity and complete 200 hours of unpaid work.