A TEENAGE dealer who sold party drugs to "try and make friends" from his caravan has narrowly avoided a spell behind bars.

Benjamin Harper, 21, is said to have significantly turned his life around since he was found with MDMA, ketamine and cannabis – which he said he had purchased to share with friends.

The defendant, who was only 19 at the time, appeared at Preston Crown Court (Sessions House) on Thursday, May 19, where he was given a 22 month sentence suspended for two years.

Prosecuting the case, Beth Pilling said Harper was driving in a Nissan Leaf around Clitheroe on July 16, 2020, when he was pulled over by officers who thought they could smell cannabis coming from the vehicle.

Harper, of Hawthorne Place, Clitheroe, immediately came clean and directed officers towards a man bag which was located on the passenger seat.

Ms Pilling said inside the bag they found 19 grams of cannabis with a street value of £200, alongside £130 cash in his wallet.

Further checks of the car uncovered 11.8g of Ketamine, 11 MDMA tablets, scales and snap bags. In total, the drugs had a value of £810.

Harper gave detectives access to his phone where drug sale messages were found to have been sent out to 18 people.

Mitigating, Sarah Magill said her client was now 21-years-old and was of good character.

Explaining the basis of plea, upon which Harper pleaded guilty to five counts of possession with intent to supply Class A and Class B drugs, she said her client had been working as a farm hand and living in a caravan.

She said: “The defendant initially purchased drugs to share with his friends and unsurprisingly he became popular.”

She went on to say Harper was "no usual street dealer" however he admitted advertising to his friends.

Ms Magill added: “As soon as he left the police station his parents – who were shocked to learn of the offences, to their abject horror – sat him down and had a long conversation with him and took him to his GP.

“There he was referred to his community mental health team.”

Ms Magill went on to say Harper, who now works as a carer, had been doing "very well" ever since, adding: “He has done everything he possibly can.”

Suspending an immediate sentence of custody, Judge Richard Archer said: “You have waited a long time for this day but that fate ultimately is your own fault, in the sense that you got yourself involved in dealing Class A drugs.

“You made a choice, and a conscious one, to involve yourself in that behaviour. Those around you knew it was wrong and you knew it was wrong.

“In one sense you are no typical drug dealer. You are very far removed from a Class A drug addict who finds they have no choice but to deal drugs to fund their habit.

“You are, I accept by virtue of your basis of plea and everything I have read about you, someone who was trying to make or buy friends.

“What it has done [the delay in proceedings] is allow you to demonstrate you are someone who can rehabilitate yourself.

"You are very different from the very naïve 19-year-old who involved himself in selling drugs.

“It is to your credit you admitted the extent of your involvement, you volunteered your bag containing to drugs and it is to your credit and your parents credit that you have been able to rehabilitate yourself.

“You were clearly involved through naivety, immaturity or exploitation. You had no influence on those above you in the chain because in reality the chain and the buck stopped with you.”

Along with his suspended sentence, Harper was ordered to carry-out 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and to do 120 hours of unpaid work.