A TEENAGED cannabis dealer was caught with almost 600 canisters of laughing gas when police raided his home in Crediton.

Oliver Checkley was traced by police after he sent out scores of texts advertising cannabis and offering to supply nitrous oxide for £75 a time.

Nitrous Oxide, also known as laughing gas, is popular as a party drug but is also classified as a psycho-active substance and a class C illegal drug.

Checkley, aged 19, of Butt Parks, Crediton, admitted possession of cannabis and nitrous oxide with intent to supply and jailed for 10 months, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to pay £500 costs by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: “It may be that you are a bit young for your age and did not realise the seriousness with which these offences are regarded. If you are tempted to do this sort of thing again, you will be going straight to prison.

“The police acted on information which they received. It gets about pretty quickly when someone of your age is selling these types of products. Your phone showed what you had been doing.

“You may have felt invulnerable, as many young drug dealers do, but it was not the case.”

Mr Joss Ticehurst, prosecuting, said police raided Checkley’s home in April last year, when he was still 18, and found drugs, cash, scales and a mobile telephone in his bedroom.

They seized 78.9 grams of cannabis with a street value of about £80, £1,313.31 cash and 586 canisters of nitrous oxide.

Messages on his telephone from a five-day period showed him offering “banging” deals on cannabis to a list of customers which varied from 41 to 75 names. He offered five boxes of nitrous oxide for £75.

Miss Rachel Smith, defending, said Checkley is now working on a building site and has been assessed as a good prospect for rehabilitation in a probation pre-sentence report.