by Paul Hooper

A Maidstone mechanic was unaware his mother had died for two weeks because his mobile phone had been seized in a drugs raid.

Mark Franklin, 49, had been spotted in the toilets of an Ashford Pub with cocaine in March this year.

Canterbury Crown Court heard how he was later arrested by police who then took away his phone for forensic analysis.

Defence barrister, Simon Conway said Franklin's family couldn't contact him to break the news of the death - and he missed out on attending her funeral - only finding out two weeks later.

Franklin, of Ashford Road, Weavering, Maidstone pleaded guilty to supplying a Class A drug to a friend and was jailed for 21 months.

Paul Valder, prosecuting, told how the landlord and landlady of The Swan in Tufton Street became suspicious of two men in the toilets measuring out lines of a white powder and contacted police.

Franklin was later caught with a quantity of cocaine, scales and plastic bags and £170 in cash.

The mechanic claimed he had taken pity on a friend called "Dickie" and given him a "freebie".

But Judge James O'Mahony told him: "People who use public houses don't want to find people snorting drugs in the toilets - and nor do landlords or landladies."