A MUSIC promoter has been cleared of being a cocaine dealer after telling a jury his stash of £3,900 drugs was for his own use.

Damon Mayes was found guilty of simple possession rather than dealing after telling Exeter Crown Court he grew cannabis and swapped it for a range of drugs which he used to keep himself calm.

He said he was a user rather than a dealer of cocaine, LSD, ecstasy and two other rave drugs which police found at his home in Newton Abbot after he was arrested in Exeter on his way to a Halloween party at a venue in Exeter.

A judge ordered a psychiatric report on Mayes who has been diagnosed as suffering from drug-induced psychosis and has spent some time in a mental health ward since his arrest in 2014.

Mayes was stopped with a pouch containing cannabis and cocaine on his way to the Dark Hallows Knight fancy dress ball and police found more drugs at his home in Newton Abbot. He was cleared of the more serious charges of dealing in class A drugs after telling the jury how he has been a drug user since he was 13.

He started taking crack cocaine when he was just 15 and used a variety of substances to cope with the impact of an unhappy childhood and tragic family life, including the death of his uncle from a heroin overdose.

He admitted growing cannabis in a secret loft space accessed through a cupboard at his home but said he did not deal in other drugs and that almost £1,000 cash found by police came from his work as a music promoter and road worker.

Mayes, aged 27, of Queen Street, Newton Abbot, denied five counts of possessing class A or B drugs with intent to supply.

He was found not guilty of dealing, but guilty of simple possession.

Before the start of the trial he pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and possession of the drug with intent to supply.

Recorder Mr Rufus Taylor adjourned sentence for psychiatric and probation reports, and told Mayes: ‘It may well be that an immediate custodial sentence is necessary, so come with a bag packed.’

During a three-day trial the prosecution said Mayes was found with cannabis and five other types of drug after he was stopped for speeding on Western Way, Exeter on October 31, 2014.

They allege he had cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, DMT, MDEC as well as cannabis, most of which was hidden in a can with a false bottom at his home.

He also had £988 cash despite having declared incomes of less than £2,000 for the previous two years.

The prosecution alleged his iPhone contained numerous coded messages from customers asking for cocaine, ecstasy, skunk, and DMT.

Mayes told the jury the only drug he dealt in was cannabis and all the others were for his own use.

He said the messages referred either to him buying drugs or purchases made jointly with other users.

He said he had scales so he could measure the drugs he bought to make sure he was getting value for money and were put into separate bags so he could ration his own use.

He said on the night he was stopped he was on his way to meet friends at a party at Exeter where they were celebrating the life of a friend who had died. He said: ‘I had a torpedo full of cocaine and some legal ketamine. They were mine and I was not going to share them with anyone else.

‘I was growing cannabis and would sell it or trade it for whatever drugs I wanted.’