A DEFENDANT who was found to have drugs and offensive weapons in his car outside court while he waited for a jury to return in his trial on other matters has been jailed for nearly six years.

The News reported last month how Chaz Toothill that was convicted of harassment and affray charges following a trial at Dorchester Crown Court.

The offences involved Toothill approaching a man in his car in the Lyme Regis area on August 31 last year and bang on the window and shout at him before he made threats to the same victim and his wife in Lyme Regis the following day.

Toothill had earlier pleaded guilty to offences of possessing cannabis and amphetamines as well as an offensive weapon, relating to items found in stop searches by police.

Prosecutor Robert Griffiths said that Toothill was also due to be sentenced for further matters that arose while the defendant waited for the jury outside the court during his trial last month.

He said police were alerted after a court security officer noticed what appeared to be someone smoking drugs in a car outside the court.

Mr Griffiths said a search of the car revealed a machete and a lock knife and Toothill was also found to be in possession of a quantity of cocaine.

He added that around a week later Toothill, now of Weymouth but whose previous address was at Whitchurch Canonicorum near Bridport, was stopped by police in Weymouth and found to be in possession of a number of wraps of heroin and cocaine.

Tim Shorter, mitigating, said that Toothill’s string of offending occurred during what could be described as a “year of madness” that was sparked by a “grievous, sudden and unexpected bereavement” involving someone close to him.

Mr Shorter said: “Something clearly went wrong, something clicked in his brain and he began to take drugs and within a relatively short period of time the drugs began to take him.”

He described the offences that occurred outside the Crown Court as “stupid”, adding: ”It’s almost incomprehensible when you consider that he is a reasonably intelligent person.”

Recorder Michael Parroy said: “You have committed a series of offences, many of them involving drugs, some of them involving offensive weapons, with what can only be described as a deliberate persistence.”

Toothill was sentenced to a total of five years and 11 months.