Drug addict Grant Davis avoided going straight to prison when his lawyers revealed he was fighting cancer and had undergone chemotherapy.

Instead the 37-year-old received a suspended sentence and was offered the chance to receive help with his addictions.

It was only when the Cliftonville dad faked a urine sample and then took cocaine before a counselling session that probation staff began investigating.

Now a judge has heard that Davis, of Northdown Road, lied to the judge – after a doctor revealed he has never tested positive for testicular cancer and never received chemotherapy.

He admitted two breaches of the court order which put him at risk of serving the jail sentence for wielding a samurai sword in public place after a row with his girlfriend and her ex-partner, possession of cannabis and shoplifting.

But amazingly Judge Nigel Van Der Bijl decided to postpone sentence for another six months to see if Davis could stay out of trouble.

"Davis has never had a diagnosis of cancer and not undergone chemotherapy" - Nina Ellin, prosecuting

Nina Ellin, prosecuting, told Canterbury Crown Court how Davis had received a nine-month jail sentence suspended for two years in December last year.

“In the mitigation at that hearing, the defendant to your honour, to probation and continually since then until extremely recently purported that he was suffering from testicular cancer.

“As a result of that he was treated in a particular way by your honour.

"It turns out now, and this is confirmed in a letter from a doctor, that Davis has never had a diagnosis of cancer and not undergone chemotherapy," she added.

The prosecutor said it was “a significant abuse” and the judge added: “Well it’s almost a perversion (of the course of justice).”

Ms Ellin added that probation officers became concerned when, as part of the order, Davis was required to give samples to ensure he wasn’t taking drugs.

On February 19 he presented a cold urine sample which he later admitted he had added water to in order to prevent proper analysis.

The following day he turned up for his rehabilitation course smelling of cannabis and claimed he had smoked the drug outside the building and thrown away the stub.

“He was later tested by having a swab taken which showed positive results for opiates and cocaine.

“Throughout this order he has been dishonest and in the opinion of the probation service they cannot work with him anymore," added the prosecutor.

Davis had planned to contest the breaches but changed his pleas to guilty to two of the offences on the day he was to be tried.

Craig Evans, defending, claimed that Davis “hadn’t intentionally tried to mislead the court and it had been a miscommunication by him”.

He said the drug addict had feared he had cancer after a swelling of his testicles and was being treated for Hepatitis C.

Mr Evans said that Davis was now hoping to get a job packing fruit and had not committed any offence since the December hearing.

The judge said he would defer sentence until September telling: “If you had only complied fully with the order then this would be all over by now.

“But you made it worse for yourself by lying about your condition but I am going to give you a chance and ask you to come back in six months and if you have committed no further offences nor taken any more drugs then I will see what I can do.”

The probation service asked for supervision and the drugs rehabilitation aspect of the order to be quashed.

Davis asked if he could get more help from probation but a representative told the judge: “He can seek help from voluntary Turning Point but probation won’t want to deal with him again.”