A judge has put off passing sentence on a man who shared some crack cocaine with a friend moments before a police raid.

Denzil Stewart was also sitting on a sofa which had a ‘sophisticated drug dealer’s kit’ hidden underneath it when officers stormed the Chippenham home.

Despite admitting sharing the crack and having some more hidden in his sock the 34-year-old insisted the package had nothing to do with him.

Judge Mark Horton, sitting at Swindon Crown Court today, said he would not have accepted the Londoner’s story had it been his decision.

But he said he was bound to pass sentence on the basis that what the father-of-four said was true.

And the judge said he was going to leave it to Stewart to decide whether he wanted to serve an eleven month jail term by deferring sentence.

He said if he remained in work, provided four positive drugs tests, observe a 9pm to 5am curfew and stay out of trouble, he would suspend the jail term.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, said police executing a warrant under the misuse of Drugs Act raided a flat in Hardbrook Court, Audley Road, on Saturday August 23 last year.

She said there were four people in the property, including a child, and Stewart, who was alone on the sofa, appeared agitated and keen to get away from the piece of furniture.

He was taken to another room and searched when he was found to have a rock of crack cocaine hidden in his sock as well as £259.79p in cash.

When he was questioned he denied having anything to do with the drugs and paraphernalia found under the settee.

He said he had shared an earlier piece of crack with Martin Greenwood, whose home had been raided.

Stewart, formerly of Wandsworth, South London, but now living with his pregnant girlfriend at Allington Way, Chippenham, admitted supply of crack cocaine and simple possession.

Anne Ellery, defending, said her client was a user of crack cocaine and shared some of the drugs when he visited a friend of his girlfriend.

She said he had nothing to do with what the police found underneath the sofa and admitted supply solely on the basis that he shared some drugs with a friend.

Miss Ellery said he was a devoted father of four, though the children were with different women, and his current partner is pregnant.

She said he was now living with her in Chippenham to help her with the arrival of their child.

Deferring sentence Judge Mark Horton said he would not have accepted Stewart’s basis had he been sitting at the earlier hearing.

“You have been extremely fortunate in this case that the Crown have taken such a lenient view in terms of your arrest,” he said.

He said that he would pass an immediate jail term if he failed to comply with the conditions of the deferment, and suspend it if he succeeded.