A MAN from Rhyl who was found to be in possession of crack cocaine at his home has been spared jail.

Francie Keating, 46, of Bedford Street, received a 12-month conditional discharge at Mold Crown Court today (October 19).

He had previously admitted a charge of possessing a controlled class A drug.

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Prosecuting, Karl Scholz told the court that, on August 23, police executed a search warrant at Keating’s home, and found him in his bedroom with a lump of crack cocaine.

When interviewed, he told police he had bought it roughly four or five days earlier, with the initial amount he purchased weighing between three and four grams.

This, Keating said, had cost him £80, but he told police he had used about £30 worth of the crack cocaine since buying it.

But he later added that he had bought crack cocaine and heroin the previous week, to the value of £100 for each.

He said he had used all of that, and had bought a further £20 worth the day before the police’s search warrant.

Keating told officers that he used crack cocaine and heroin “two or three times a week”.

This offence also placed him in breach of a suspended sentence previously issued to him, which does not expire until December.

Defending Keating, who had 11 previous convictions for 18 offences including three for possession of cannabis, Simon Killeen said he had otherwise been making good progress on the terms of his suspended sentence order.

With this in mind, he asked if the court could refrain from issuing Keating with an immediate custodial sentence.

Sentencing, Judge Niclas Parry agreed not to send Keating to prison, but warned him: “You’ve got to be careful.

“It would be unjust to activate any part of the suspended sentence, because of the progress you’ve made.”

Keating’s suspended sentence remains in effect until December, while the drugs seized from him by police were ordered to be forfeited and destroyed.