A DRUG supplier who offered to give an undercover police officer his own mobile number has been spared jail.

At Bolton Crown Court George Smalley, who had been caught as part of police anti-drugs crackdown, Operation Muswell, was told he will be subject to an electronically tagged curfew instead and must do unpaid work.

At an earlier hearing Judge Graham Smith was told how Smalley had met an undercover officer, who called himself Chris, in the toilets at the Bamboogy club on Bradshawgate, Bolton, on November 21 last year.

Smalley confided in the officer that he and his mate were doing some "dodgy dealing."

The policeman asked if he was selling cocaine and a short time later 21-year-old Smalley handed him a small bag of the drug in return for £50.

Mark Friend, defending, stressed that Smalley was not making a living out of drug dealing and had only been seeking to help someone whom he regarded as a fellow drug user.

Smalley, of Fernside Court, Radcliffe, even gave the officer his own mobile number, which was registered to his home address, in case he needed to get some more drugs.

When officers working on Operation Muswell later rang the number they were referred on to another man who supplied them drugs.

Smalley pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine.

Judge Smith opted to spare Smalley immediate jail, sentencing him instead to two years in prison, suspended for two years.

He will also be electronically tagged and subject to a 7pm to 7am curfew for six months and must undertake 240 hours unpaid work.