A TEENAGER was spared prison for dealing Class A drugs after a judge branded the lack of evidence against him “perplexing and astonishing”.

Tyler Beadie, 19, was warned not to think of a judge as a “soft touch” after he was let off from an immediate term behind bars.

Beadie was stopped by police officers in Clacton in May after they witnessed a suspected drug deal, a court heard.

He was found to be carrying a wrap of Class A drugs and a small bag of cannabis.

At the police station he was strip searched and told officers he had “something between his butt cheeks”.

When officers removed the three pairs of shorts he was wearing, a blue ball of drugs wraps fell to the floor.

Beadie, who has five convictions for 13 offences, admitted two counts of possession with intent to supply a Class A drug and possession of cannabis.

At Chelmsford Crown Court, Judge Patricia Lynch QC said she had been given “precious little” information about the 30 to 40 wraps.

Calling the lack of evidence “perplexing and astonishing”, she said: “The Crown can’t prove the quantity, they can’t prove how many are heroin and how many are cocaine.”

Daniel O’Malley, mitigating, said Beadie, of Ellis Road, Clacton, is a “product of the care system”.

He said: “He sees the people who work in this diabolical world as an extended family, they are the people he warms to just because he needs human comfort.”

Mr O’Malley said his client had been carrying drugs for others and operated under the control of dealers due to a debt he had accrued.

Judge Lynch suspended an 18-month prison sentence for two years and ordered Beadie to complete a rehabilitation activity requirement and a 19-day programme.

She said: “I don’t want you to run away with the idea I’m some sort of soft touch, the reason I’ve passed what may be perceived as quite a lenient sentence is for all the reasons I have dealt with with counsel.”