AN Hampshire bodybuilder found with a ball of drugs in his underwear has been spared further prison time after admitting to being concerned in the supply of mephedrone.

Jack William James Phillips was found to have an ounce bag of mephedrone together with nine bags containing 0.9grams of the drug and more than £1,000 when he was arrested in Andover in June.

The 26-year-old has been detained in prison since his first court appearance in Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court two days after his arrest.

A  judge at Winchester Crown Court released him after passing a 12-month sentence suspended for two years and 150 hours unpaid work in the community.

The court heard how Phillips, from Andover, was arrested when a 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was detained by police and described how he supplied her the class B drug and used “unpleasant” tactics to enforce payment.

Martyn Booth prosecuting said: “She was to tell the police that she had a friend in contact with the defendant. That friend was somebody who used the drug in question and he was the person who supplied the mephedrone to the friend. Her friend had obtained the mephedrone from the defendant and the friend gave her some to try.

"Because of issues going on in her life she developed a taste for it and she became a user of that drug. She also started buying that drug from this defendant who was her supplier.”

Mr Booth continued to tell the court how over a period of time the teenager bought the mephedrone on credit, accumulating a “modest” debt of £45 and when she could not pay he became forceful.

“He threatened to kill her, put her in hospital and hurt her family if she did not pay this debt,” Mr Booth said.

Phillips, of St Anns Close, was arrested later that same day and taken to Basingstoke Police Station where he was found to have £1,092 in cash on him, an ounce ball of mephedrone in his underwear and nine small bags containing 0.9g of the drug – a street value of £500.

Phillips came second in the beginners category of the UK BBFF South Coast Championships bodybuilding competition in May.

He wept quietly in the dock as his barrister told the court that he became involved in supplying the drug after his partner suffered a miscarriage.

David Reid, defending, said: “It was a particularly traumatic event for them both. He became depressed and matters got on top of him. He immersed himself in his bodybuilding and, in time, immersed himself in mephedrone which came with that.”

He described how Phillips sold drugs to fund his own habit, making a small amount of money on the side, and that he was keen to change because his partner is expecting another baby in February.

The defendant has 21 previous convictions for drugs offences, violence and a sexual offence for which he spent time in a young offenders’ institute.

Sentencing Phillips, Recorder Nicholas Atkinson told him: “The offence, as you know, is a serious one. It is aggravated by the forceful approach to collecting debt.”

He then told Phillips that he was “impressed” with the character references received and the efforts he had made to rehabilitate himself while in prison. Phillips was also ordered to undertake a rehabilitation requirement and made the subject of a restraining order towards the teenage girl.