AN amphetamine dealer who kept his £660 stash in his then-partner’s freezer, walked free from court the day after becoming a dad.

Burnley Crown Court heard how addict John Beveridge, 36, repaired bicycles and people would bring him bits of bikes in exchange for drugs. He would then put them together and sell them on.

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Beveridge, whose partner had a baby girl on Sunday, was told by a judge that she had intended sending him to jail, but she had stepped back by a whisper.

Recorder Suzanne Goddard, QC, said: “I am sure you wouldn’t want that child growing up with the thought that her father was a drug dealer, who was going to carry on getting into trouble with the police.”

Beveridge’s former girlfriend, Andrea Radford, 40, also a long-term user, admitted possessing 4.8 grams of amphetamine, worth £50, for her own use. The defendant, of Norfolk Street, Nelson, was given an 18-month community order, with a drugs treatment requirement.

Beveridge, of Hall Street, Trawden, pleaded guilty to possessing drugs with intent to supply. He was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, with a 12-month drug programme.