DEBT-ridden Paul Wyatt paid £1,500 for drugs to set up as a Worcester dealer - but no one wanted his cannabis, a court was told.

He became the victim of "a sting" by buying drugs of inferior quality, said his barrister Francis Laird.

Wyatt was £20,000 in debt and had taken on his mother's mortgage.

But police pounced after he went to meet a drug customer on a Worcester pub car park. A cannabis haul with a street value of £5,420 was recovered from his car, his pockets and his home.

Jailing Wyatt for 15 months, Judge Marten Coates said his attempt to solve his money problems by setting up as a drug dealer was "not a good one".

But he reduced the sentence because of his previous good character and his frankness to police.

The 26-year-old, of Coniston Close, Warndon, Worcester, admitted one count of supply and three of possession with intent to supply.

His downfall came on Thursday, May 4, last year, after police saw a man step into his car on a pub car park, then walk away carrying a bag, William Rickarby, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court.

The car was stopped in Brickfields Road and drugs were found in the rear passenger footwell.

Wyatt had four blocks of cannabis in his pockets and police recovered a shoe-box full of drugs, worth £4,690, at his home.

He confessed he had been a courier for about two months, ferrying drugs to 12 people four-times-a-week.

He was trying to set up as a dealer himself but a large amount of cannabis had been returned to him by customers who had rejected it for its poor quality.

Wyatt's drug profits totalled £1,500 and the judge confiscated that sum from him.

Mr Laird said he came from a good family background and two of his relatives worked for solicitors.

But he lived way beyond his means and had helped his mother out financially when she fell on hard times after the break-up of a relationship.

Mr Laird added: "He had astonishing debts and began to behave like this, but he was well and truly stung."

Wyatt was very concerned that while he was serving his sentence, his mother's home would be put into further jeopardy.