Last updated 12:11, Wednesday, 02 July 2008

An unemployed man caught snorting cocaine in a parked car was able to buy the expensive class A drug because his parents did not make him pay for his keep at home, Carlisle Crown Court heard yesterday.

Because Lee Briscoe did not need the money he had never tried to hold down a job. Judge Barbara Forrester expressed surprised that the 24-year-old was living with his parents without making any contribution to their household expenses, and accused him of “wasting” the last few years of his life.

Briscoe, of Lorton Avenue, Workington, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply it to a friend, possessing it for his own use and possessing an offensive weapon, a baseball bat.

In mitigation, defence barrister Alison Whalley said Briscoe had started taking cocaine after falling out with his girlfriend and losing one of his friends in a car crash.

He was given a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, and made to do 200 hours unpaid community work. He was also put on a 9pm to 7am curfew for the next three months.

And, after hearing that he had nothing else to spend his money on, the judge ordered him to pay £600 costs.