A drug dealer caught with cannabis a year after receiving a suspended sentence for growing marijuana has been jailed for 27 months.

Police stopped a black Range Rover being driven by Daniel Read, 31, around 1.35pm on April 26 this year, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Officers located a bag containing cannabis, smaller dealer bags, a set of scales and £295 in cash after searching the vehicle, Joanne Eley, prosecuting, told the court.

The cannabis was weighed by an officer and totalled 67 grams, with an estimated street value of £70, Ms Eley said.

Two addresses linked to Read were then searched by police, and although nothing was found at the first property, money and a burner phone with messages associated with drug dealing were discovered at the other.

He was arrested but did not answer police questions in interview.

At his plea and trial preparation hearing at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday, Read pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply class B drugs.

The conviction put Read in breach of a suspended sentence, which he received in 2021 after he admitted producing cannabis and possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

On that occasion, Read was renting a property in Great Cornard and had been due to move out in October 2018.

When the landlord attended the address to check the property, a cannabis operation was discovered, including lighting equipment and netting in a bedroom and 16 cannabis plants.

The police were called and a total of 6.8kg of cannabis was also found in A4-sized packages around two inches deep. The court was told the cannabis was valued at more than £20,000.

Read was handed a two-year jail term suspended for two years, a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement and ordered to do 140 hours' unpaid work.

The court heard that Read, of Dales Road, Ipswich, has 17 previous convictions for 27 offences.

Steven Dyble, mitigating, said Read initially got involved with drugs to satisfy gambling debts, and had "a major gambling problem".

Sentencing Read on Wednesday, Judge Emma Peters told Read he was given a chance at his last sentencing, but "had not taken that chance".

He was handed nine months' imprisonment for possession with intent to supply cannabis and Judge Peters activated 18 months of the suspended sentence to be served consecutively for a total of 27 months.

Read will serve half in custody before his release on licence.