TIMOTHY Wakely's one-year prison sentence has been welcomed by the detective in charge of his case.

DC Emma Powell, of Trowbridge CID, said the 12-month tariff was what she and her colleagues had expected and sent out the right message to offenders.

She said: "Obviously there are a lot of cases that have gone through for straightforward possession.

"But in this case it was the one count of distribution that bumped up the sentence a bit.

"One year is about par for the course and nobody was terribly surprised by that."

Despite Wakely being behind bars the owner of the company where he was a director says the business is continuing as normal.

Steve King said Wakely's case had been very complicated, but his sentence would not unduly affect his machining services firm SKT Engineering.

He said: "It's a completely personal matter for him and the company carries on as it is. I'm basically running the company as normal.

"It's an awkward situation and he is no longer associated with the company."