A drug dealer caught carrying almost £1,500 in cash has avoided going to prison because of a merciful judge.

Ricci Mewton, 24, was facing a maximum three-year jail sentence after £1,000 of drugs were found at his flat in Ethelbert Road, Ramsgate.

But Judge James O’Mahony took pity on Mewton, whose seven-year-old son was undergoing an eye operation as he appeared in the dock.

The judge was told Mewton had been forced to leave the boy – for whom he is the main carer – so he could answer his bail at Canterbury Crown Court.

Defence barrister Keith Yardy said the child was being operated on by surgeons implanting stem cells, and would need to have his eyes stapled shut.

The court was told Mewton was arrested two years ago after he was stopped in the street and had £1,433 in cash on him.

A search of his flat uncovered £1,000 worth of cannabis, which he admitted possessing with the intention to sell it.

For a separate drugs offence, Mewton was last August given a 40-week jail sentence, suspended for two years, along with a home curfew and unpaid work for the community. Mr Yardy said Mewton had completed the 160 hours of unpaid work and obeyed the curfew.

The judge said he was impressed that “unlike others who often appear at court” the community work had been done.

He said this offence was two years old and ruled he would not send Mewton to jail immediately.

Judge O’Mahony suspended a six-month jail sentence for two years, saying both offences should have been dealt with at the same time.

After reading a letter from Mewton’s mother, in which she said her son had turned his life around, the judge told him: “I know you want to go to be with your son, so go, and I wish you good luck.”

Mewton, who wept during the 20-minute hearing, told the judge: “Thank you so much”.

He left with his mother, who had watched the proceedings from the public gallery.

The money seized by police during the raid was ordered to be confiscated along with all the drugs paraphernalia.