A DRUG supplier who was caught wandering outside a nightclub brandishing a knife while snorting cocaine has walked free from court.

Jason Davis, from Cricklade, was due to face a mandatory six month jail term as it is the second time he has been convicted of possessing a bladed article.

But after hearing the 37-year-old dad was put on a suspended sentence last year for supplying ecstasy, Recorder Robert Pawson decided it would be unjust to jail him.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the defendant was seen wandering about with the knife in the early hours of Monday, September 5.

He said: "It was 1.30am when a 999 call was made to the police by the door staff at a nightclub in Swindon that there was a man walking up and down holding a weapon and taking drugs in front of them."

"When officers arrived they saw him close to the Sir Daniel Arms in Fleet Street and as he came round a corner and spotted them he ran away.

"He still had the knife in his hands. They chased him, caught up with him. He had a knife with a blade of about seven inches in his hand.

"He was told to drop the knife, which he did. He was arrested, fairly vigorously as he had a knife. There was a small bag of drugs in his possession."

When he was questioned he said he had gone out after finishing work as an agency chef, which is why he had the knife on him and could recall little of what happened.

Davis, of Fairfield, Cricklade, admitted possessing a bladed article and having cocaine.

The court heard in December last year he was put on a suspended sentence for possessing ecstasy with intent to supply and having cocaine.

On that occasion he was stopped in the Cotswolds on an unrelated matter last May and found to have 32.85g of cocaine and 63 ecstasy tablets.

He also had £3,000 in cash, which he said he got from selling a car, as well as another £142.39 in his pocket.

Prosecutors accepted that the cocaine, worth about £2,000, was for his own use and a judge imposed a suspended sentence.