UK Milkman Delivered Cannabis With Bottles Of Milk

An elderly milkman supplied customers with cannabis alongwith their bottles of milk has been spared jail.

Robert Holding, 72, delivered marijuana as he made his daily rounds in the town of Burnely, in northwestern England.

Holding told police he supplied the drug to 17 customers after detectives raided his home and found nearly 167g of cannabis in an egg crate in the van he used for deliveries.

"He said he sold the cannabis to existing customers because they were old and had aches and pains," said prosecutor Sarah Statham. "He said he sold a 255g bar about every three weeks and sold it for a relatively cheap value."

The milkman said that customers left him notes saying, for example, 'Can I have an ounce this week or can I have an eighth.'"

Judge Beverley Lunt told him the sentence was "an act of mercy" because he visited his wife, who has Alzheimer's disease, every day in a care home.

"You were not some philanthropist helping out the elderly out of the good of your heart. You dealt drugs for profit in a calculated way. It was a business," the judge told him straight up.

His lawyer claimed that Holding "wasn't making much of a profit" and that his oldest client was 92.

"Word had got out that he was a man who could supply cannabis to those of a certain age with aches and pains and he misguidedly believed he was providing a public service," he said.

"This might make it sound like what he was doing was harmless. It wasn't," said Neil Standage, area crown prosecutor for East Lancashire.

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