A Blackpool dad of three young children vowed to a court he had given up his cannabis habit and said he would never let his children breathe in cannabis smoke.



Antony Atkins had been caught growing five cannabis plants upstairs at his home by police who went to the address.
Atkins, unemployed, aged 28, of Hawthorn Road, North Shore, admitted cultivating and possessing cannabis plus fraud.
He was sentenced to 21 days imprisonment, given a 12 months conditional discharge and ordered to pay £240 compensation by Blackpool magistrates.
Atkins agreed when presiding magistrate, Collette Woodhouse, said to him: "You certainly don't want your young children breathing cannabis smoke. We want you to come out of prison clean."
Prosecutor, Martine Connah, said police went to Atkins home after he sold an X-box and games which did not belong to him at a second-hand shop.
At his address officers found five cannabis plants growing in pots upstairs and some cannabis in wraps in two jars on March 18.
Howard Green, defending, said the items Atkins had sold in his name at the second-hand shop had been taken in a burglary. He had been asked to sell them by a man who then gave him £30.
Atkins accepted he had had a problem with cannabis. He had been told it was cheaper to grow your own cannabis.
He had grown the five plants from seed, but they were small and months from being harvested.
Since the offences he had stopped smoking cannabis and was getting help from rehabilitation experts.