Latest Teesside headlines straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A dad gave his bereaved daughter cannabis to stop her drinking, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Both Mark and Samantha McDonald ended up in the dock after they became embroiled in dealing the Class B drug.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC told the pair today: “You were supplying on a commercial basis, albeit on a very limited commercial basis.

“You are not by any stretch of the imagination significant or substantial dealers of cannabis.

“You were supplying to a very limited number of your friends, colleagues and those who were to be considered your customers.”

He told Ms McDonald, 20, drank to excess since she was 14: “That was clearly very harmful to you.

“Your father in his view clearly thinking it right - but clearly not right - to move you from alcohol on to cannabis.”

Mr McDonald, 42, told police he would rather this, enabling him to control and monitor her use, than her drinking.

She used cannabis heavily since the death of her mother - Mr McDonald’s ex-partner - in June 2012, the court was told.

Officers stopped Mr McDonald driving with his daughter as passenger on Derwent Street, Middlesbrough on November 13 last year.

The Rover car smelled of cannabis and about £83 worth of that Class B drug was found.

Police found numerous packages of cannabis - mostly small amounts, up to an ounce - in their home on Premier Road, Middlesbrough.

Cannabis worth a total of about £550 was discovered in three bedrooms, along with two sets of digital scales.

Texts on their phones indicated drug supply involving nine customers. Some of hers read “guy wants some green Sam” and “still sell skunk Sammy?”.

An officer believed Mr McDonald “was involved in the drugs world holding some position of trust, able to acquire a variety of illegal drugs and able to supply the same onwards”, said prosecutor Paul Lee.

Both admitted supplying cannabis and possessing it with intent to supply.

Mr McDonald also admitted possession of buprenorphine and heroin also found by police.

He had 38 previous offences including possession of drugs but no supply, while his daughter had no previous convictions.

Robert Mochrie, defending Mr McDonald, said he was a drug user and not, until this, a drug dealer.

He said the trigger for the heavy cannabis use was the death of Ms McDonald’s mother.

Ms McDonald gained £5,000 from a payout, smoked cannabis and attracted “a lot of friends” sharing it with her, added Mr Mochrie.

He said the supply started to continue to fund that drug addiction.

After a troubled life, Mr McDonald had now made “in-roads” into tackling his difficulties, had sole care of a younger daughter and stood to lose a stable home if imprisoned.

Judge Bourne-Arton, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, gave Mr McDonald a 10-month prison sentence suspended for two years with 18 months’ supervision and a thinking skills’ programme.

He gave Ms McDonald a four-month custodial sentence suspended for 18 months with a year’s supervision.