A 19-YEAR-OLD drug dealer has been given a suspended prison sentence after a court recorder said previous penalties had "no effect whatsoever."

Shumon Hassan, of Humfrey Road, Headington, admitted possessing a class B drug with intent and being concerned with supplying a class B drug, both cannabis.

Prosecutor Nigel Ogborne said acting on intelligence, police found a "golf ball sized" lump of cannabis and buds in bags in a driveway and garden area.

Two digital scales and a phone with "indicative messages of drug dealing" were found with the skunk cannabis worth more than £1,000 of more than two ounces.

Defending, James Armstrong-Holmes said of the college plumbing student: "He has expressed a good deal of remorse by this time."

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Mr Armstrong-Holmes said Hassan dealt to friends and acquaintances, adding: "He does have a problem with cannabis and he has been doing that to fund his own habit."

He was smoking £20 worth a day but he has "taken steps to address that" and "only has the occasional smoke of cannabis at the weekend," he said.

Recorder Anna Laney said at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday [12/2]: "Your previous convictions show this is a course of conduct that you actively involved in and that previous sentences that have been passed upon you. community orders, have no effect whatsoever."

She said she did not see he was "showing true remorse" but gave some credit for his early guilty plea.

Hassan got a 12 month sentence suspended for 12 months, a three-month 7pm to 7am curfew with leg tag, and a 12 month supervision order to complete a thinking skills course.