A Ceredigion drug dealer was arrested after his trousers fell down during a struggle with police officers which revealed a stash of ketamine.

Jareth Saxton, aged 26, of Dihewyd, appeared for sentencing in Swansea Crown Court last week after pleading guilty to possession of ketamine with intent to supply.

Police officers stopped a car in Aberystwyth at around 3.45am on 17 January 2021 – during a period of Covid lockdown restrictions.

Officers reported a strong smell of cannabis and noticed one of the passengers, Saxton, appeared to be ‘nervous’ and fiddling with his phone.

Officers began to search the people in the car, but as Saxton resisted the roadside search by officers, his trousers fell down to reveal a bag of ketamine worth more than £7,000 in his pants.

Officers also found another bag in his trousers with the total amount of ketamine, which prosecutors said was of high purity, totalling £8,300.

The court heard how Saxton was a heavy user of the Class B drug, taking up to 10g a day of the powerful anaesthetic.

Simon Kitchen, for Saxton, said the defendant had been using a “considerable amount” of ketamine at the time of the offending and had been dealing the drug to around half a dozen friends.

He told the court that a series of events – the loss of employment due to Covid, the ending of a long-term relationship, and the death of a number of friends by suicide and drug overdoses – saw Saxton’s life “spiral out of control”.

His life however is now in ‘a very different place’ to where it had been two years ago and he said his client had been drug-free for more than five months, had ended contact with his previous associates and was hoping to begin an engineering course with the Open University.

The barrister added that sending a man who was successfully tackling a drug addiction into a prison environment “awash with drugs” would be like locking someone who was recovering from alcohol addiction in an off-licence.

Recorder Simon Hughes said police had found clear evidence of Saxton’s drug dealing on his mobile phone and said the offending was so serious only a custodial sentence was appropriate.

But he said he was satisfied by everything he had read and heard about the defendant that there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and he was “just” able to suspend the sentence.

With a 20 per cent discount for his guilty plea, Saxton was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and 250 hours of unpaid work.