POLICE walked into a "fog" of cannabis smoke when they went to a Herefordshire flat where two men were dealing drugs, a court was told.

Joe Green, aged 23, and David Cree, 22, were living in Leominster with not a lot to do and smoking far too much cannabis, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Police went to Green's flat in Waterworks Lane on November 10 last year and saw people coming and going, Paul Whitfield, prosecuting, said. They knocked and Cree opened the door.

"They were met by a fog of cannabis smoke," Mr Whitfield said. "It was obvious what was going on."

On the coffee table in the lounge were 21 dealer bags of cannabis and people called at the flat while police were there.

Cree had £210 in his possession, there were electronic scales in the flat and and a mobile phone had messages on relating to dealing drugs, Mr Whitfield said.

Cree, of Ridgemoor Road, Leominster, and Green admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

They told police they had been selling the drugs to fund their own habit.

John Dyer, defending both men, said they knew they should not have got involved in dealing.

"They were young men living in Leominster with not a lot to do and time on their hands who smoked far too much cannabis," he told the court.

"They have been trying to cut down and they want to make a break and a new start."

Judge Toby Hooper, QC, told them they were "at the prison gate and knocking hard on it" if they didn't mend their ways.

They had brought "poison" into the community of Leominster and were corrupting people in the same way they had been corrupted themselves, he said, but he was going to give them a chance to become useful members of society.

He gave Green an eight month sentence suspended for 18 months with 120 hours of unpaid work and Cree a 12 month sentence suspended for two years with 150 hours unpaid work.