A DRUG dealer caught red-handed delivering cannabis supplies on a motorbike was spared jail after a court heard of his newborn baby.

James Harrhy, 35, from Newport has “turned his life around” since his arrest last year and is now a full-time student holding down two jobs, his barrister said.

The defendant was arrested in the Cathays area of Cardiff on May 19 last year, prosecutor Nuhu Gobir said.

Harrhy had been spotted by police riding a motorcycle erratically and they followed him to a house where he was dropping off a cannabis delivery.

When they searched him, officers found 23.2g of the class B drug, £370 cash and a burner phone.

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Police found more than 600g of cannabis mixed with tobacco when they went to Harrhy’s home in Colston Court, Newport as well as 2,000 grip seal bags.

“Messages on his phone showed the defendant was taking orders for cannabis during the day and was making deliveries in the evening,” Mr Gobir told Cardiff Crown Court.

“He was offering his customers a variety of strains of cannabis and he was the main owner of this line.

“The defendant was involved in relentless street dealing.”

Harrhy pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply and being concerned in the supply of the class B drug between August 2021 and May 2022.

He had no relevant previous convictions.

Peter Donnison, representing Harrhy said: “The defendant has demonstrated to the court that he can make a change of things and he's done that in the year since these offences took place.

“He has found himself now in somewhat different circumstances to those that he was in a year ago in the sense that he has a newborn child just weeks old that he is caring for.”

The court heard that Harrhy also provides support for his wife and is a student who works 40 hours a week with two part-time jobs.

Mr Donnison added that there was a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation” in his client’s case and he’d been assessed as posing “a low risk of reconviction”.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins jailed Harrhy for nine months but suspended the sentence for 18 months.

No order for unpaid work was made as the defendant is a full-time student and working 40 hours a week.

He was ordered to pay £720 prosecution costs.

Before Harrhy left the dock, Judge Jenkins told him: “You have a family and they are far more important than cannabis.”