DRUG dealer Kyle Brace, who was caught selling heroin and crack cocaine in a pub, has been told to thank the probation service and his mother after walking free from court.

Although the 20-year-old, of Athelston Place, Malmesbury, was told “custody is inevitable” when he pleaded guilty, Judge Tim Mousley QC said he changed his mind and suspended the sentence.

He told Brace he should thank probation and his mother, for agreeing to have him back.

The judge added: “The third thing that has saved you from custody today is your young age.”

Instead, he imposed a 21-month custody term suspended for two years, with supervision, a drug rehabilitation requirement and 100 hours of unpaid work.

Brace was caught by police twice within a few weeks early last year, as he sold drugs in Chippenham.

He was first arrested in Wetherspoon’s on January 14, when police found he had eight wraps of heroin and crack. Another six were in a bag that he had dropped.

His phone had taken 1,181 incoming calls of less than a minute and 300 texts: indicative of a drug dealer’s orders.

When Brace was arrested on a bus in Chippenham on February 6, he had 10 wraps of drugs.

He first denied four counts of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply, but on the first trial day, changed his plea to admit what he did.

Tristan Harwood, defending, said Brace was young and naive and had struggled with profound dyslexia and fell in with the wrong crowd.