A Llandysul man who told a probation officer he was surprised a judge was thinking of jailing him for dealing in cocaine received a shock on Friday when he was sent down for 28 months.

Richard Jones, aged 37, of The Beeches, had admitted possessing 23.5 grams of cocaine on July 19 last year with intent to supply.

John Lloyd, prosecuting, told Swansea crown court how police stopped Jones' car at Llansawel near Carmarthen on July 20 last year.

He was asked about drugs and volunteered that he had cocaine hidden under the front passenger seat.

Police recovered two small bags of cocaine.

During questioning Jones said he would have supplied some of the drugs to known users to help fund what had become an expensive habit.

When police searched his house they found a dealer's "tick list" of customers and text messages on his mobile telephone relating to the supply of drugs.

The court heard that Jones had been convicted in 1996 of supplying amphetamine and in 1999 of possessing cannabis resin with intent to supply.

Jones was also under a suspended prison sentence for the theft of machinery His barrister, Dyfed Thomas, said Jones was now drug free.

Judge Keith Thomas said he noted that Jones had responded with surprise when a prison sentence was mentioned to him by a probation officer, when in fact a prison sentence was inevitable.

The courts, he added, so often saw cases involving drugs, which placed substantial burdens on the health and emergency services.

People like Jones, he said, assisted those further up the food chain.