A FENLAND market trader has been jailed for 15 months after he squandered his last chance to get clean of drugs.

Brian Goodale told Cambridge Crown Court earlier this year he was “too old for this caper” and would give up his �200-per-week drug habit.

But just four months later the 44-year-old was found riding a bicycle with 13g of amphetamine and �135 cash, claiming the money was to buy a stack of potatoes for his Wisbech market stall.

Judge Gareth Hawkesworth joked: “He would have needed more than a bicycle to carry those away.”

However, he was in less of a jovial mood when he sentenced him and said: “Let me spell it out to you – the unlawful use of drugs has consequences far beyond your own little world which you inhabit.

“Drug use gives rise to a black market of such an extensive kind that people are coming before this court committing other crimes in desperate need to fund their addiction.

“By playing a part in that particular society, you’re giving profit to the wrong people.

“You are getting too old for this caper but you simply lack the will power to do anything about it.”

A pre-sentence report prepared for court said Goodale, of Dowgate Road, Leverington, an addict for 20 years, had repeatedly breached supervision orders designed to help him since 2007.

He was given a suspended sentence in May this year for two offences of possessing a Class B drug with intent to supply but Judge Hawkesworth said he had no option but to activate the sentence.

He also gave him six months for the new matter of possession, making 15 months in total.

Judge Hawkesworth said: “You’ve lost the time now to go through fast withdrawal. You have been warned.”

Mitigating, Benedict Peers said: “The message is getting through to this man that it is simply not acceptable to continue to use drugs in the way that he does in the face of court orders.”

Earlier this year Goodale was given a last chance by Recorder Angela Rafferty to get clean.

Goodale, who ran a Sunday market stall selling potatoes and part-worn tyres, told the court he faced a potential prison sentence with “profound dread” because his eldest brother had terminal lung and kidney cancer and was not expected to live past September.