Spared jail: Drug dealer warned he was on ‘the knife edge’

Callum Lough was caught carrying five wraps of cocaine when police searched the Highwayman in Washington in May last year.

The 23-year-old, who had been near the off-licence next door when he was stopped by the police, admitted he had sold one wrap to a friend inside the bar for £20.

At Newcastle Crown Court, prosecutors accepted the rest would be kept to use himself.

Lough, of Kingsfisher Road, Ayton, Washington, admitted supplying and possessing cocaine.

Judge Simon Hickey sentenced him to 16 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with supervision, 140 hours of unpaid work and three-month curfew.

The court heard Lough has a job and has tried to change his ways in the last 18 months since the offence,

The judge told him: “References paint a very different picture of you.

“Today you were on a knife edge so think yourself lucky.”