Relief was etched on Hamza Quadri’s face as he learned he would not be jailed for drug dealing, six months after police caught him with around four grams of cannabis in a smoke-filled car in Earley.

The 20-year-old, of Eastcourt Avenue in Earley, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply and was handed a six month jail sentence, suspended for two years, at Reading Crown Court on Friday.

The court heard how officers were patrolling his neighbourhood on the evening of February 2 when they saw a Renault Megane parked at the side of the road with Quadri in the back. When they approached the car they noticed a strong smell of cannabis and decided to search the vehicle. On the driver’s seat they found a Louis Vuitton bag, belonging to Quadri, containing four deals of cannabis worth around £80 and a small piece of card with six customers’ names on it.

They then searched his home, where they also found a box which contained a further four deals of cannabis and a mobile phone containing text messages he had sent out to his customers advertising when he had received new batches of the drug.

Quadri, who began using the drug when he was 16, has previously been jailed for two years in October 2012 for his part in a robbery during which two young teenagers were threatened with a Taser.

Sentencing, Recorder Lawrence West QC said: “I imagine your father must have come close to despair with you, as must have the rest of your family. It is clear that you come from a decent background and a family that cares for you, but you have got to wake up. You can’t keep disappointing them and even worse you can’t keep disappointing yourself and doing yourself down.

“Having been imprisoned for a very serious offence you then responded to that by engaging in further criminal activity. You were doing this on a small scale but for a commercial purpose and that only starts you on a slippery slope.”

Defending, Nicholas Dunham said Quadri is now one year away from completing a three-year qualification in mechanics at Bracknell and Wokingham College.

He added: “You’re dealing here with a very small amount of cannabis, not suggesting in any way that this is a high end operation. He has just turned 20 and he is a young man with some considerable potential who is just about to complete a vocational qualification, who has a trade and who if he utilises that potential will not come before the courts again.

“Both he and his family are embarrassed about what has happened.”