A DRUG dealer who owned up to supplying £20,000 worth of cannabis has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Darren Roberts, 26, ended up in court after police searched his then home at Waddock Farm near Dorchester in October last year and discovered a haul of drugs with a street value of around £8,000.

Officers also discovered more than 100 cannabis plants and Roberts said in interview that he had been dealing the drug to pay off a debt.

He appeared at Dorchester Crown Court after admitting charges of supplying cannabis and amphetamine, possessing both class B substances with intent to supply and cultivating cannabis.

Prosecutor Heather Shimmen told the court that Roberts, a dog breeder, was not at home when officers raided the property on October 18 last year to discover the drugs.

She said: “In the living room they found a significant quantity of ‘skunk’ cannabis, just over 1,000 grams, and they also found other types of cannabis and cannabis resin in a smaller quantity.

“In the kitchen they found 127g of amphetamine powder and in a stairwell they found growing cannabis plants.

“Also a significant number of seedlings were found to be growing in a front bedroom and cannabis was found to be growing in an airing cupboard.”

Miss Shimmen said the total amount of cannabis unearthed by officers amounted to 1,055 grams and 120 plants.

She said officers also found more than £2,900 in cash in the main bedroom of the house.

Roberts, who gave his latest address to the court as Empool Close, Crossways, told police that he had been dealing drugs.

Miss Shimmen said: “He admitted in interview that he had been supplying others.”

She said the defendant claimed he was dealing to pay off a debt of £60,000 that had been transferred to him after a contact whom he had introduced to a group of Chinese drug dealers had cheated them.

Roberts said he had been dealing cannabis since March that year and had so far managed to pay back £20,000.

In a basis of plea he claimed the amphetamine was principally for his own personal use but he had sold a small proportion to a friend.

Robert Pawson, mitigating, said his client – a married father of three young children – had made full admissions in interview, even volunteering the information that he had been dealing for several months to the tune of £20,000.

He added: “It is clear that he is a good husband and a devoted father. Obviously he had jeopardised all of that.”

As he sentenced Roberts to a total of two years in prison for the five offences, Judge Roger Jarvis told the defendant: “It is plain that your engagement in these matters has been a calamity for your family and for you.”