A DRUG dealer could be a future problem in his community unless he stops the drug habit that makes his mental illness worse, York Crown Court heard.

Andrew David Hutchison, 29, was caught when a police community support officer spotted him behaving suspiciously on a bike and stopped him, said Reginald Bosomworth, prosecuting.

Hutchison had 34 wraps of amphetamine on him worth £340 and 36g of the same drug at his home which a police expert estimated he could sell for £920 on the street.

He also had a common “cutting agent” for mixing with the amphetamine, some of which was of high purity.

Hutchison, of Oldham Court, Foxwood, denied possessing an illegal drug with intent to supply to others, claiming all the amphetamine was for his own use, but a jury convicted him in November.

When he returned to court for sentencing, his barrister Holly Betke handed in a doctor’s diagnosis that Hutchison suffered from psychoses and said his mental health deteriorated when he took amphetamine.

Recorder Simon Phillip QC told him if he was unable to tackle his drug taking “it will be a significant problem for you and potentially the community for the foreseeable future.”

He gave him a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, on condition he did 12 months’ supervision and a nine-month drug rehabilitation requirement.

“You have come within a hair’s breath of going to prison today,” he told Hutchison. Miss Betke said Hutchison was a “one-man band” who did not employ anyone to sell drugs for him.

He had been using amphetamine since he was 14 years old and had noticed that it affected his mental health, which was getting worse. He now accepted that he needed help. His mother was standing by him.

In 2008, Hutchison was jailed for 18 months for a house burglary and three other burglaries.