A JUDGE told a plumber he was fortunate to be supported by his family when he spared him an immediate prison sentence for cannabis offending.

Giving him a six-month suspended term, Judge Gary Burrell QC told Robert Luffman he had come within a whisker of going to jail for quite a long time.

Southampton Crown Court heard how Robert Luffman had been stopped in a car by police who recovered four bags of cannabis.

Prosecutor Tammy Mears said that put the 20-year-old in breach of a suspended sentence imposed for attempting to take class A drugs into the Boomtown Festival near Winchester last year.

Luffman, of Haddon Drive, Eastleigh, had admitted possession with intent to supply on the basis he was funding his own habit and only supplying close friends.

In addition to the suspended sentence, he also received 12 months’ supervision and a sixmonth drug rehabilitation requirement.

In mitigation, Andy Houston said Luffman had been addicted to cannabis but after his arrest he had spent seven weeks on remand and was now clean of drugs.