A pro-cannabis campaigner who is standing for Parliament broke down in tears when a judge spared him a prison sentence for peddling the drug.

Christopher Baldwin, who is standing as an MP for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, received a suspended jail term.

The disabled 51-year-old, who uses a wheelchair and crutches, was caught with seven kilos of cannabis, worth about £10,000 in a sports bag.

Undercover officers had been staking out a lock-up garage in Grantham Road, Brighton, for two weeks when Baldwin arrived with his bag full of herbal cannabis.

He went into the garage and was arrested as he started to unload blocks of the class B drug into a freezer.

Officers found scales, bags for wrapping up drugs and discarded foil which forensic experts said was used to wrap almost 50kg of cannabis.

He told police he was just a courier who had agreed to drop off the drugs in exchange for some cannabis.

Baldwin, who has a string of drugs convictions, is standing as a prospective MP in Worthing East and Shoreham, which is currently held by Conservative Tim Loughton.

Baldwin, who admitted possession of drugs with intent, said after the case: "I feel completely and utterly drained and relieved. I thought and expected that I was going to be sent to prison.

"I will be having a joint tonight, I sure will. I don't see using cannabis as a crime. It is cannabis prohibition that is a crime."

Judge Richard Hayward told Baldwin, of Carnegie Close, Worthing: "If you were a fit man you would go to prison for quite a long time."

He sentenced Baldwin to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered the drugs be destroyed.