A JUDGE said claims that a man was not intending to do drug deals in a York club were "beyond belief", after hearing he went in carrying a stock of skunk cannabis, weighing scales and other drug paraphernalia.

Emma Farnsworth, prosecuting, told York Crown Court was told that Stephen Charles MacDonald, 22, also had more than £1,000 in cash, plus the other items, in a sports bag on his shoulder when he called at Toffs on June 17.

Door staff were suspicious and called in police, who found he had 30 cannabis plants growing in his mother's back bedroom.

Altogether detectives found cannabis with a street value of between £1,493 and £1,767 on MacDonald or at his mother's.

His barrister, Paul Williams, said of the items in the sports bag: "His case is not that he had been taking them for dealing in the club."

But Judge Paul Hoffman,the Recorder of York, said: "I find that beyond belief.

"I am entitled to draw the inference that he was there for a sinister purpose, namely to deal." Mr Williams said anyone taking out scales and weighing cannabis in the nightclub would have been asking to be caught.

He said MacDonald had the drug items on him because his girlfriend had concerns about them and he was moving them to a new location.

Miss Farnsworth had earlier said that police found bags for drug dealing in MacDonald's clothing at his girlfriend's home, where he sometimes stayed.

The judge adjourned the case until March so he can hear evidence from prosecution and defence about exactly what MacDonald was doing with the drugs at Toffs, in Toft Green.

MacDonald, of Knapton Close, Strensall, pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply to others, producing cannabis and possessing cocaine. He was released on bail.

Miss Farnsworth said door staff called in police because they suspected MacDonald of dealing at the nightclub. In addition to the cannabis paraphernalia, they found a wrap of cocaine worth £30 in his bag. A small piece of cannabis in the bag was for MacDonald's own use.

The same day, police searched his mother's house in Strensall where he regularly slept. She directed them to his bedroom where they found 30 cannabis plants from seedlings to about 28cm tall. There was no specialist growing equipment.

In police interviews, he said that he had fallen out with his girlfriend that day and gone into town. He claimed the cannabis and drug items in his bag belonged to a friend he refused to name.

MacDonald was jailed in 2001 for two years for dealing in Ecstasy tablets. Police had caught him collecting 102 tablets from his supplier which he intended to share with his friends.

Updated: 11:00 Friday, December 09, 2005