A CONVICTED drug dealer was spared prison after a judge heard he was helping other addicts turn their lives around.

One reformed addict gave evidence about how Liaqat Khan, of Meldon Way, Horton Bank Top, had helped to transform his life.

James Booth told Bradford Crown Court: “He has been like a big brother, stood over my shoulder giving me the confidence to say no and do other things.”

Mr Booth said he had been drug-free for nine months. He said Khan “seemed to have the answers I was looking for”.

The court heard that Khan, 37, who had previous convictions for drug dealing and in 2013 was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for possessing class A drugs with intent to supply, was also the primary carer for his dying mother.

Recorder Eric Elliott QC told Khan, who pleaded guilty to one offence of possessing cocaine with intent to supply, he felt able to take a “wholly exceptional course”.

Sentencing him to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, and ordering him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work, he said: “There are certain cases – and I feel this is one of them – which go outside of sentencing guidelines.

“I accept this matter is an isolated aberration. In light of all I have heard about you and the way you have tried to refocus your life, it seems to me it is going to be in the interest of the public to take this course.”

Prosecutor Clare Walsh said police saw Khan driving a Volkswagen Jetta in convoy with a black BMW X5, at 6.20pm on June 3. He parked outside an address in Cutler Heights Lane. He was found to be in possession of two bags of cocaine with a potential street value of £2,630.

Khan, who was on licence for the previous drugs offence, pleaded guilty on a basis that he and his friends pooled their money to buy better drugs at a cheap rate. It was not intended to sell them on.

His barrister, Nigel Edwards, said he was “assisting others, that’s what he wants to do”.

Khan was the primary carer for his mother, who had terminal cancer. But on the night he was stopped, things had got on top of him and he had gone on a “bender” with friends.