A former associate of the Kray gang has been spared a stretch in prison after being caught with £4,000-worth of cocaine and cannabis.

Wallace Garelick, known as Fat Wally, was notorious for helping Ronnie and Reggie to plot the escape of a gang member dubbed the Mad Axeman from Dartmoor prison in the Sixties.

Now aged 62, the grandfather, who lives in The Drive, Hove, is penniless and suffering chronic ill health.

Lewes Crown Court heard yesterday that police acting on a tip-off stopped Garelick's Vauxhall Astra in Brighton and discovered 1.475 kilos of cannabis resin, 965 grammes of herbal cannabis and 26.56 grammes of cocaine in the boot in January last year.

He told police he was delivering the drugs for somebody and subsequently admitted three counts of possession of class A and class B drugs with intent to supply.

Ahmed Hussein, defending, said: "He is acutely aware of the serious nature of these offences, to which he pleads guilty. He is aware that Your Honour will be considering a custodial sentence.

"He is utterly distraught and his health has deteriorated significantly. At the age of 62 he feels his life has really been destroyed by his actions on that day.

"He has been in a tearful state constantly when considering this matter and he feels his life has changed so dramatically."

Judge Anthony Niblett sentenced him to two years but suspended the sentence for two years after hearing he was diabetic and ill with psoriasis and clinical depression.

Sentencing, he told him: "I'm surprised at your age that I should find myself having to deal with you for what are very serious offences.

"The only real sentence for those who commit these offences is prison for a substantial period. The only question for me is whether in the circumstances your case justifies that sentence.

"In your case my view is that such circumstances do exist by reason of your ill health.

"You are a diabetic with associated vascular and circulatory problems and suffer from acute clinical depression.

"I accept that all three conditions would rapidly deteriorate if you were to go to prison.

"If you are foolish enough to commit any further offences, particularly in relation to drugs, you will have to serve the period of two years as well as the new offence."

Afterwards, Garelick said: "I'm absolutely delighted because who wants to go to prison? I thought I was going to get potted for four years. Now I want to go back to my family, my missus and my grandchildren.

"This is a different ball game to what happened in 1969. This is more low key but still traumatic. Thank God I got the right result."

Garelick helped the Kray twins plan mentally unstable Frank Mitchell's escape from Dartmoor in 1966.

Mitchell was serving a life sentence when he fled a working party on the moors and was picked up by Kray associates at a pre-arranged rendezvous and whisked away to London.

The break-out was one of the most notorious escapades of The Firm and is thought to have ended with Mitchell being murdered after even the Krays found it impossible to control him.

Garelick was jailed for 18 months at the Old Bailey in 1969 after admitting helping the twins plot the escape.

Mitchell, who earned his nickname after escaping from Broadmoor on a previous occasion and holding an elderly couple captive with an axe while he drank tea, has never been seen since.