A FORMER semi-professional footballer found in possession of more than £200 worth of a class B drug in Weymouth has been made subject to a community order.

Shane Russell Jackson, 26, appeared at Dorchester Crown Court to be sentenced after admitting possessing the drug MDEC with intent to supply and possessing a bladed article.

Prosecutor Simon Edwards said Jackson, of Ringwood Road, Poole, was stopped and searched by police in Hardwick Street in Weymouth at around noon on September 15 last year.

He was found to have a lock-knife in his jacket pocket and when officers took him back to the police station they also searched a suitcase he had with him and found in it 58 blue tablets.

The tablets were analysed and found to be the class B drug MDEC with an estimated value of £230.

When interviewed, Jackson said he had been given the tablets by a friend around two years ago and did not know exactly what they were “but was told they were for use in the gym”.

In relation to the knife he told officers he had been moving house and did not have it on him for any illegal purpose.

The court was told Jackson had 11 previous convictions for 16 offences, including a five-year jail term in 2011 for an offence of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Tim Bradbury, mitigating, said: “Mr Jackson candidly admits having got these drugs into his possession and although he didn’t have a settled plan in relation to them, inevitably he was keeping them and if the opportunity arose to sell them then he would have sold them.”

In relation to the knife, Mr Bradbury added: “This was not a knife that he was carrying with him with a view to using it offensively.”

He added that Jackson, a hod carrier by trade, was a former semi-professional footballer and had recently revived his passion for the game by playing for local side, Holt FC.

Judge Jonathan Fuller sentenced the defendant to a 12 month community order with a 25-day activity requirement.

He warned Jackson that he faced a custodial sentence if he did not comply with the order or committed further offences.

The judge told him: “Your future is in your own hands.”