A county lines drug dealer who had heroin and cocaine worth around £5,000 in his bedroom at his parents’ house in Bury St Edmunds has been given a suspended sentence.

Police raided the property on November 28 2019 and found 122g of heroin and 1.5g of cocaine as well as £2,000 cash, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

They also found cutting agents, bags and scales which suggested that drugs were being mixed and packaged for onward sale, said Brian Reece, prosecuting.

Before the court on Friday (July 2) was Thomas Dykstra, 20, of Anselm Avenue, Bury St Edmunds, who admitted possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and possessing £2,038 criminal property.

He was given a 24-month period of youth detention, suspended for 24 months, and a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

He was also given a four-month electronically-monitored curfew between the hours of 8pm and 7am. He was ordered to live at the family home for the next two years.

Sentencing Dykstra, Judge David Pugh said a significant quantity of drugs and cash had been found in his bedroom and that ordinarily, the starting point for the offences he had admitted - subject to a discount for a guilty plea - was 54 months.

However, Judge Pugh said he was satisfied that Dykstra's involvement in the offences had come about as a result of pressure and intimidation.

The judge felt able to pass a suspended sentence, because Dykstra had used the delay in the case coming to court due to the coronavirus pandemic to break his tie with drugs.

Steven Dyble, for Dykstra, said his client - who was 18 at the time of the offences - had been exploited because of his age and that pressure had been put on him because of a drug debt.

He said Dykstra’s family had moved to Suffolk from Liverpool to live a “quiet, ordinary” life after the defendant’s brother was jailed for drugs offences.

However, Dykstra had started using drugs and mixing with “undesirables” and had run up a drug debt with a county lines drug line.

Mr Dyble said the people Dykstra owed money to had made him “an offer he couldn’t refuse” and he feared there would be serious consequences for him and his family if he didn’t work off the debt by becoming involved in the supply of drugs.

He said his client had been trying to turn his life around and had aspirations to go to college and train as a chef.