A MEPHEDRONE dealer who asked to be locked up after being caught selling the party drug was spared jail.

Jonathan Porter, 26, was arrested as he sold the class B drug to two men in St Vincent Road, Newport, on January 22, a court heard.

Porter faced immediate custody when he appeared for sentencing at Newport Crown Court.

But Judge Rhys Rowlands instead gave him a nine-month custodial sentence, suspended for two years.

He had already spent about two months in custody after asking that his colleague, Judge David Wynn Morgan, kept him on remand, the court heard.

Judge Rowlands told him yesterday: “You have now spent a couple of months on remand.

Your mum and your stepfather are standing by you and your stepfather is offering you a job.

There is hope for your future.”

Porter, of Clarence Place, Newport, said the M-Cat he kept in clear plastic bags was “sugar” when police pounced on him on January 17.

Police later found text messages on his phone indicating he taken part in drug deals, but he claimed that someone else had used the mobile, prosecutor John Probert told the court.

Porter pleaded guilty to possessing mephedrone with intent to supply at a plea and case management hearing on July 19.

Stephen Thomas, for the defence, said Porter had been using his time well after asking Judge Wynn Morgan to keep him in custody in June and had taken a carpentry course and other educational courses.

Mr Thomas added that his client had not made a “massive profit” from drug dealing having lived from “hand to mouth” and now wanted to put this lifestyle behind him.