A MAN who lost his job turned to drug-dealing.

Craig Gittins, 35, started selling cannabis, a court heard.

Profits were modest which he used to pay for his own cannabis habit.

He was using cannabis himself because of a painful knee problem.

Police recovered a small amount of herbal cannabis and some cash and scales when they executed a search warrant at his home in Fourth Avenue in Llay in June of last year.

But Mold Crown Court heard how they seized his mobile phone and on it were text messages indicating cannabis dealing.

He would send out adverts to say when he had drugs available.

One read 'Alaskan Purple' and another said 'New stuff in', said prosecutor Karl Scholz.

Gittins, who admitted supplying cannabis and offering to supply the drug, received a 10 month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

He was placed on rehabilitation to help him address his misuse of cannabis and he was ordered to carry out 120 unpaid work.

Judge Rhys Rowlands warned him that if he breached the order then he would send him to prison,

He said he had been arrested as a result of good police work.

Text messages showed he had been involved in supply for about two months.

"You were a street level dealer on a fairly moderate scale in the spring and early summer of last year," the judge told him.

He was selling commercially to fund your own habit and it was claimed his cannabis use was because of a painful knee problem.

Simon Parry, defending, said his client had a good work history but he had been laid off at Christmas 2017.

That was what led to the offences.

He could not get benefits immediately and he descended into a period of offending, selling cannabis to cover his own habit.

Gittings used cannabis as a pain relief, said Mr Parry.

He had an additional bone in the knee which caused him problems and which was painful.

Mr Parry said Gittins was anxious to get back to work and had been for an interview for agency work.