A criminal who bunked off community service work to go to India has been spared jail after a judge heard he had been doing charity work rather than taking a holiday.

Damon Mayes spent seven weeks in India without telling probation officers who were supervising the 250 hours of unpaid community work he was doing for drug offences.

The probation service had given him permission to go on holiday but were left in the dark when he stopped turning up for sessions of unpaid work.

Former music promoter Mayes, aged 29, of Queen Street, Newton Abbot, received a two year sentence, suspended for two years, at Exeter Crown Court in December 2016 when he admitted growing and dealing in cannabis and possession of cocaine, LSD and ecstasy.

He admitted failing to comply with the unpaid work order and was told to do a further ten hours as punishment.

Judge Peter Johnson told him:"You were given a chance with the suspended sentence and you have managed to comply with some of the terms and have not reoffended.

"I consider it would be unjust to activate the suspended sentence in the light of how you spent your time in India."

Mr Paul Grumbar, prosecuting, said Mayes had completed much of the unpaid work when he indicated to supervisors that he wanted to go to India for a holiday.

They gave permission but required him to let them know when he was going and he failed to do so.

Mr Stephen Nunn, defending, said Mayes has mental issues and felt he had to get away because he was ’cracking up’.

He said:"It doesn’t look good that he had such a long holiday but in fact he was out there visiting a friend who has been in India for ten years and has set up a charity to assist the poor and deprived.

"He was working three or four days a week at a local school, clearing agricultural land and working with other volunteers from the West in the area. He says he found it very therapeutic."

Mr Nunn said Mayes has completed three sessions of unpaid work since returning in February and is keen to complete the order.

The original case arose after Mayes was stopped by chance as he drove through Exeter on his way to a Halloween Party at the Phoenix Centre in 2014.

Drugs were found in his car and a search of his home revealed 14 cannabis plants growing in a loft, which could only be accessed through a trap door hidden inside a cupboard.

He also had bags of harvested cannabis which contained more than £4,000 worth of the drug and £960 cash in his car and home.

Mayes was found with more than £3,500 worth of cocaine, LSD, ecstasy and dance drugs hidden in a tin with a false bottom but was cleared of dealing these drugs at a trial at which he claimed they were for his own use.