A 25-year-old man caught with two-and-a-half ounces of cannabis has avoided going straight to jail for drug dealing.

Jack Siggers was handed a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Suffolk Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Siggers, of Nursery Road, Great Cornard, was stopped and searched in Burkitts Lane, Sudbury, on June 1.

He admitted possession with intent to supply 72 grammes of cannabis at an earlier hearing on November 10.

On Monday, Natasha Nair, mitigating, said Siggers had made full admissions to selling cannabis to friends, adding: "Not only that, but he said that cannabis found in bushes at the scene was his. I don't think credit could be any more clear than in this case."

Miss Nair said Siggers had been entirely abstinent from cannabis since the offence and had expressed shame and remorse to the probation service in a pre-sentence report.

Siggers will have to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 25 days' rehabilitation activity requirement as part of the suspended sentence.