A middle-aged man caught with a large amount of heroin as he sat in his car with his dog was told by a judge he would end up on a mortuary slab if he did not stop using the drug.

Dean Stephenson was accused of dealing in a large amount of heroin and cannabis after the drugs were seized from his car.

But a jury cleared the 53-year-old after he claimed to be a heavy user of the drugs. He admitted possessing them.

Judge Philip Statman said: “I have to ensure I am faithful to the verdicts of the jury. He is still using.

"It is a miserable life which will cut short his life expectancy.”

He told Stephenson, of St Peter’s Path, Rochester: “I am not going to send you to prison but I do want to try and do something to see what we can do to help you with this chronic addiction of yours.

“Life is precious. You have wrecked your life so far, but there is still life ahead if you want it.

"If you keep taking heroin you will be on a mortuary slab soon.”

The jury at Maidstone Crown Court was shown video footage of the moment officers pounced on Stephenson as he stopped in his car with his dog on the passenger seat in Gravel Walk, close to his home, on May 22 last year.

He tried to drive off but only got about 30 yards in the dead end. Officers smashed the driver’s side window when he refused to open the door and handcuffed him through the broken glass.

Prosecutor Ian Foinette said there was immediately a strong smell of cannabis coming from the car.

Stephenson’s partner reached into the car and took out a couple of packages which had prescribed medication in them. She was restrained by police.

After being taken out of the car, Stephenson managed to wriggle out of one of the handcuffs and was taken to the ground.

A large bag of cannabis worth up to £620 was found under the driver’s seat.

More than 20 grams of heroin worth up to £3,000 was also seized.

“You will see this is a reasonably valuable consignment of drugs,” Mr Foinette told jurors.

“The Crown’s case is he had drugs with intent to supply.

“He said it was for his personal use. The Crown say this is ludicrous because he had a large consignment of drugs.”

In the body worn footage shown, Stephenson asked an officer: “Where did you get on me then?”

"You have wrecked your life so far... if you keep taking heroin you will be on a mortuary slab soon" - Judge Philip Statman

The officer replied: “Just randomly saw the car”. Stephenson responded: “It was a pure lucky touch then.”

Stephenson said in evidence he had about £5,000 from compensation paid to him because of a medical misdiagnosis.

He had been on methadone for six years but relapsed and went back to heroin use, funded from his savings.

“In the end I was buying 14 grams of heroin and 14 grams of cannabis,” he said.

“I have never come close to overdosing because I smoke it.

"It is not like having an injection of heroin when you don’t know when it’s going to hit you.

“I had about an ounce of cannabis and 21 grams of heroin. I hoped it would last for about four weeks.

"I wasn’t intending to sell any of it. I hadn’t been asked to look after it.”

After the jury’s verdict Mr Foinette said Stephenson was in breach of a conditional discharge imposed by magistrates for possessing eight wraps of heroin, hidden down the back of his trousers.

His home was searched and more wraps, along with electronic scales, were found.

Stephenson was sentenced to a community order for 12 months with a six-month drug rehabilitation requirement.

The judge ordered him to attend court monthly for updates on his progress.

“This case allows me to consider rehabilitation,” Judge Statman told the jury.

“You can see the mess he is in. You can see the degradation and shortening of lives it causes.

“We must do our best in appropriate cases to see if men like this can have some hope in the future.”

He told Stephenson: “It is make or break time for you. If you really want to do something about your addiction, now is your chance.

“If you decide you are not going to do as you’re told, you will go instantly to prison. That’s the stark choice you have.”

Judge Statman said Stephenson might like to know that had he been convicted of dealing the starting point for sentence would have been three years imprisonment.

“You may like to think about that if you go on the black market and buy some heroin,” he added.