by Tricia Jamieson

Two drug dealers have avoided jail because of what a judge described
as inadequate information.

Judge Simon James criticised the police for failing to provide
photographs of the men's homes where cannabis was being grown or full
details of the equipment being used.

He said: "It is difficult to assess the extent to which the defendants
were involved.

"If there are pictures, they must be made available in future. Where
is any inventory of what was seized?

"The information is inadequate and this cannot be allowed to continue.
I do not see why the defendants should be prejudiced by the inadequacy
of the case.

"I cannot make a proper assessment - it puts me in an impossible
position and cannot continue."

Judge James made his comments at Canterbury Crown Court when
sentencing two Thanet men for two charges each of possessing cannabis (like the library picture above).

James Bilsland, prosecuting, said that he had raised the lack of
information with the police.

Judge James said: "The police are obliged to assist the court and if
they refuse, it is a matter of concern."

Kevin Miller, 32, of Canterbury Road, Margate, and Carlos Haddon, 23,
of Westbury Road, Westgate, had both admitted the charges at an
earlier hearing.

Canterbury Crown Court, where the case was heard

Judge James told them the starting point for sentencing should have
been a year in jail, but he would suspend the sentence "to ensure
the court is not put in such an impossible position again."

Miller and Haddon were both sentenced to six months in prison,
suspended for a year, placed under a 12-month supervision order and
six month drug rehabilitation requirement and ordered to do 160 hours
of unpaid work.

Mr Bilsland told the court their homes were searched after drugs were
found inside a car they were in which was stopped by police in
Canterbury Road, Westgate. Drugs had been thrown from the vehicle.

At Haddon's address, 10 cannabis plants were found inside a black tent
in a bedroom plus cultivation equipment.

In a bedroom at Miller's home 67 plants were growing, seven main ones
plus cuttings.

Text messages retrieved from the men's mobile phones were incoming
ones asking for drugs. Both men were cannabis users and had admitted
small amounts of selling. Miller had a caution for possessing
cannabis.

Judge James told them they had a commercial motive to growing the drugs.