A DRUG dealer who advertised by text message faces an eight-month prison sentence unless he goes straight for a year.

Ben Campbell, prosecuting, told York Crown Court that police cycling near York Sports Club in Shipton Road became suspicious when they saw a home made bong, used for smoking cannabis, in a car parked near Shipton Road Club.

They investigated and found that rear-seat passenger Michael Raymond Legg, 19, had 9.1g of cannabis in a "nappy sack" stuffed down his trousers.

He also had three small packets of cannabis each weighing less than a gram and some scales. Together the cannabis was worth between £82 and £108 on the streets.

Legg had two mobile phones on him with text messages indicating he had started selling the drug nine months earlier.

One of the text messages advertising that he had drugs for sale had been sent to 58 different people.

In a police interview, Legg told police: “I don’t make a great deal of money. I tend to smoke the profits.”

Legg, of Burrill Drive, Clifton, pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis and possessing cannabis and was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months on condition he does 80 hours’ unpaid work.

His barrister Peter Byrne said although he started selling the drug in March 2015, on April 19, he replied to text messages from would be buyers that he was no longer selling.

For a time, he kept off the drug. But then his hours of work were reduced and he could no longer afford his rent. So he turned back to drug dealing to make money.

Mr Campbell said the police caught Legg on December 15. He told them in an interview that the cannabis he had was for his own use because he was a heavy user. In a later interview, he admitted that he had dealt in the drug in the past and the cannabis in the car could have been used by himself and the other two people in the car with him.