A FORMER Oxford University carpenter who turned to drug dealing after becoming addicted to heroin and crack cocaine has narrowly avoided jail.

James Walsh was questioned by police officers after they spotted him sitting in a car in Bullingdon Road at about 4.25pm on February 20 this year, a court heard.

Prosecuting Elizabeth Smaller said the officers found a pot containing 12 wraps of heroin, worth £120, and 38 wraps of crack cocaine, worth £360.

She added that a search of his home in Van Diemans Lane, Cowley, found between £220 and £290 worth of the party-drug MDMA, as well as quantities of cannabis and stimulant MDC.

The 23-year-old had originally admitted possessing crack cocaine, heroin and MDMA with intent to supply and two counts of possessing MDC and cannabis.

But he changed his plea, claiming that, although he was dealing MDMA, he had only been delivering the heroin and crack cocaine for his drug dealer.

He told Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday that he had been promised a bag of crack cocaine and heroin if he took the pot of drugs to an address in Bullingdon Road.

Walsh added: “He asked me to take this pot and this phone to someone in Bullingdon Road.

“I was just at the side of the road when the police pulled up next to me.”

Judge Ian Pringle ruled that there was not enough evidence for him to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt that Walsh had been intending to sell the drugs himself.

Lucy Ffrench, defending, said her client had been addicted to drugs since he was 17 and had left his job as a carpenter for Oxford University’s physics department to seek help with addiction charity Turning Point.

Appealing for a suspended sentence she added: “This is not a lifestyle he would have ever chosen for himself.

“The hardest part of telling his parents he had been arrested was telling them he had an addiction.

“His mother is living with primary aggressive multiple sclerosis and he is ashamed to have added to her burdens in that way.”

Judge Pringle said that because of Walsh’s age and the fact he was now getting off drugs, he could give him a last chance.

He imposed a 20-month suspended jail sentence, ordered Walsh to do 150 hours of unpaid work and undertake a drugs rehabilitation programme.

Judge Pringle added: “I am going to take an exceptional course with you and it is the last chance you’re going to get.”