A DRUG dealer caught with cannabis and ecstasy at a Herefordshire music festival has been sent to jail.

Neuland Mortby was caught at Nozstock Music Festival near Bromyard with 45 separate cannabis deals in his backpack, Worcester Crown Court was told this week.

The 24-year-old, from Palm Grove, London, was in breach of a suspended sentence order for an earlier drug dealing offence, the court heard.

Christopher Lester, prosecuting, told the court that police at the festival on August 3, 2014, were ejecting a man suspected of theft when they spotted a group of young people including Mortby.

They searched his backpack and found the cannabis worth a total of £430, a quantity of ecstasy he had for his own use and £800 in cash.

Mr Lester said the amounts were consistent with low level drug dealing. Mortby's mobile phone also had messages on it relating to drugs.

Emma Fenn, defending, said Mortby had been going through difficult family issues at the time of his arrest in the summer of last year.

He had got through 18 months of the 24 month suspended sentence and had been trying not to get involved again in drug dealing and he was angry with himself for failing and letting his family down. She said it would be his first time in prison.

Judge Francis Laird, QC, said he was "sceptical" about Mortby's basis for his guilty plea that he was only dealing to a small group of friends but he had decided to accept it.

The judge said the case had been hanging over him since last summer and he would take this length of time into account.

He activated nine months of the suspended sentence and added on a further three months for the new offences, making a total of 12 months.