POLICE discovered a haul of drugs worth more than £2,000 when they searched a Weymouth home, a court was told.

Father-of-three Darren Paul Chapman, of Norfolk Road, Weymouth, was jailed for 33 months after he admitted possessing cannabis and cocaine with intent to supply as a result of the search on May 6 last year.

Anne Brown, prosecuting, told Dorchester Crown Court that officers executed a warrant at 43-year-old Chapman’s home at 6.30pm and found the defendant and his family present.

She said officers found a tin containing a small amount of cannabis, worth around £8.50, on the sofa next to where he was sitting.

Officers then found a large ‘Celebrations’ tin containing 187.59g of the class B drug in the kitchen.

She said police valued the stash at between £1,060 and £1,590.

The search also revealed around £15 worth of herbal cannabis and a mobile phone that had on it a number of text messages apparently relating to the supply of drugs. Ms Brown said officers continued their search of the premises and in a bedroom found 27.27g of herbal cannabis, or around £140 worth, and some white powder in a blue metal cash box, which turned out to be cocaine.

She said: “The total quantity of cannabis was 21.52g with a street value of £860.”

Jamie Porter, mitigating, said that Chapman maintained he was the custodian of the drugs and was keeping them for someone else.

He said his client had never been involved in large-scale commercial drug dealing and simply supplied drugs to a ‘close circle of friends’ in order to ‘subsidise his own habit’.

Judge Roger Jarvis sentenced Chapman to 24 months in prison for the cannabis offence and 33 months for the cocaine, with the sentences to be served concurrently.

He told the defendant: “Those high up in the distribution of drugs look for people like you to be custodians – one of the reasons they do that is they hope somebody like you doesn’t attract the attention of the authorities.

“Also they have an ambition that as you can present yourself as merely a custodian the court will deal with you particularly leniently. A message must go out that this is not the case.”