A DRUG dealer found with cocaine and ketamine in his tent at Bestival has been jailed.

Security staff approached Matthew Chapman and his acquaintances after they could smell cannabis on the afternoon of Saturday, August 4, 2018, at the music festival in Lulworth.

They were searched and a packet containing white powder was found on Chapman.

A search of his nearby tent followed where 23 packets containing cocaine and others with ketamine were found.

On Thursday, a judge sitting at Bournemouth Crown Court decided to hand Chapman a custodial sentence of three years and four months after he had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to charges of possession with intent to supply 12 grammes of cocaine and around 40 grammes of ketamine.

Tom Wright, prosecuting, said police found message exchanges on the defendant’s phone which appeared to show the supply of drugs in other festival settings before Bestival. Further messages showed Chapman, of Edencourt Road, Furzedown, London, in discussions with an individual who seemed to be his wholesale supplier, with arrangements organised to pick up drugs.

Robert Grey, mitigating, said the defendant had suffered from the threat of a prison sentence looming over him for almost a whole year since his initial arrest.

He told the court Chapman had been “contributing to society” as a self-employed builder and brick layer.

“He has not used or sold drugs since his arrest,” said Mr Grey. “He has had a real shock. This has been hanging over him for a year.”

Sentencing Chapman, Judge Brian Forster QC said the defendant’s hard work in employment left it “more difficult” for him to work out why he had become involved with drugs.

“The courts have a clear duty to deter people from supplying drugs to others,” said Judge Forster.

Given his history of drug use, Judge Forster told Chapman “you would know what you were getting involved in and the risks that would arise if you were caught and the sentence that would follow”.