A CANNABIS dealer who sold drugs to Bolton University students has been jailed for nine months.

Bolton Crown Court heard how a security guard spotted Sharhad Rahmani loitering for two hours near the university buildings on September 13, 2012, and called police.

Amanda Johnson, prosecuting, said he was arrested after officers found four £10 wraps of cannabis on a wall nearby. He was then released on bail.

Just weeks later, on October 12, he was seen again, putting his hand through a fence on nearby Baldwin Street.

A PCSO grabbed his arm, which was holding on to a plastic bag containing cannabis and he dropped it, claiming: “That’s not mine!”

When he was released on bail again Rahmani, a failed Iranian asylum seeker, fled to Germany.

But the court heard that he was arrested by the British authorities after he was deported back to England in January.

Rahmani, aged 28, of Gilnow Road, Bolton, pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis and possession with intent to supply.

Kate Harney, defending, said Rahmani had been living a hand-to-mouth existence after he came to Bolton seven months before his first arrest and had been under pressure to sell drugs from his dealers after he ran up debts.

Judge Peter Davies sentenced Rahmani to nine months in prison, but because of the time he has spent in custody on remand he is expected to be released and then deported.

Judge Davies told him: “There could have been people affected by injury to their mental health. That is why selling cannabis is dangerous and serious.”