A skateboarding drug dealer nabbed as he headed to an Ashford park to push cannabis to children has avoided going straight to prison.

Alexander Horsford, 24, of Bond Road, had targeted the park where he was known to supply cannabis in "deal" bags carrying a cannabis leaf motif.

Canterbury Crown Court heard police officers were probing complaints of drug-taking from identical bags littering the skate park just days earlier.

But Horsford – who could have faced a three-year prison sentence – was given a suspended sentence and placed under a three-month 8pm to 7am curfew instead.

He had pleaded guilty to possessing the Class B drugs with intent to supply others, including children.

Jim Harvey, prosecuting, told how at 10.20am on July 11 this year, the skater was cycling in Ashford when he was stopped by police.

"While he was being questioned, he admitted he was on his way to the skate park in Ashford but officers noticed his t-shirt had small holes consistent with someone smoking cannabis," he said.

"As a result of that he was searched and inside a black rucksack, they discovered three plastic bags containing herbal cannabis hidden inside a pink sock.

"They also found a considerable number of clear plastic bags – known as deal bags – which had a green cannabis leaf motif, which matched bags found previously at the skatepark. They also found digital scales and two mobile phones,".

Horsford's Blackberry phone was then forensically examined and found to contain texts, including one from a "Tony".

It read: "Mum has 30.2g she needs to shift and wants £80."

Horsford had replied: "I need to get the money first."

The prosecutor said while the teenager was being held at the police station, his phone received more text messages - one of which read: "For f**** sake, I have been left with your s*** to walk about with."

Another read: "I can’t believe you have left me with your s***. What if I get caught? Oh my god where are you?"

"you admitted that your customers were sometimes - perhaps often, given the location - under 18-year-olds..." – recorder janet bignell

Horsford said he used £10 of cannabis a day, which he bought from a person he refused to name and then repackaging the drug – keeping some of it for himself and selling the rest, making £3 profit per bag.

Mr Harvey added: "He told police that he had been on his way to the skatepark and was planning to sell it to anyone who asked for it. He said this was a quite common exercise.

"He later told a probation officer that he had been supplying the substances to under 18-year-olds."

The drug dealer, who has a previous conviction for possessing cannabis, was given a 36-week sentence - suspended for a year - and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

The judge, Recorder Janet Bignell said: "The police stopped you - fortunately before you had dealt drugs that day when you were on your way to the skatepark.

"You admitted that your customers were sometimes - perhaps often, given the location - under 18-year-olds.

"It is highly regrettable that when your own habit seemed to have been formed by your use from the age of 14, that you spend your day selling to children of a similar age, who perhaps as a result will one day end up in a dock like you.

"The fact you were selling to under 18-year-olds and at a skate park is a particularly aggravating feature of this case."