A BARROW drug dealer was caught out trying to send cannabis through the post when shop workers were alerted to a "strong smell".

Jamie Mease-Christian, 27, tried to send several packages of cannabis and THC capsules across England and Scotland after posting the substances at the postal counter at the Coop on Walney, Barrow Crown Court heard.

Staff at the Coop, on Plymouth Street, contacted police after noticing a "strong smell" from the packages Mease-Christian attempted to send on February 21 last year.

The court heard how the defendant was arrested by police when he returned to the post office days later to ask why the packages had not been sent.

The packages contained 42 grams of cannabis and 10 capsules of THC, a cannabinoid, said to be worth more than £800.

After pleading guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply, Mease-Christian, of Hope Street, Barrow, was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence.

He was also ordered to pay £250 in costs and carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.

Sentencing Mease-Christian yesterday, His Honour Judge Jonathan Gibson said: "Possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply is a very serious matter."

Mr David Traynor, defending, said Mease-Christian would have "a future of non-offending" and had been offered a job teaching English in Cambodia, a country with strict drug laws.

Mr Traynor also told the court that Mease-Christian had used cannabis to self-medicate an untreatable condition that caused him blackouts.

Mr Traynor said: "He is cutting down his drug use to reduce it to nothing by the time he goes away.

"He has a future of non-offending."

Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock, who recently called for more regulation to prevent companies delivering drug parcels without checking their contents, praised the post office staff.

Mr Woodcock said: “Well done to the staff who smelt a rat and raised the alarm on this case.

"But of course the problem is that the majority of drugs being sent through the post are odourless and so could not be detected by sharp nosed counter staff.

“That is why I am calling for parcel companies to be made to invest in better detection technology so it is harder for dealers to use the mail to send life-wrecking substances into our communities.”