A STROUD man who breached the terms of his suspended jail sentence for weapons offences has been given three months to sort his life out before he is punished.

Last May Matthew White ,46, of London Road, Stroud, admitted having an offensive weapon on November 13, 2018, in the Dursley area and then having a raptor style claw knife when he arrived at Cheltenham Magistrates Court on March 28, 2019.

He was sentenced to six months jail suspended for two years and ordered to take part in a thinking skills programme to address his drugs habit and other rehabilitation activity requirements.

But yesterday at Gloucester crown court Neil Hewitt, from the probation service, reprted that White had not even started the thinking skills programme and had committed two breaches of his order.

Lloyd Jenkins, defending White said to Judge Ian Lawrie QC: “This is a mercy plea. White admits he has a poor level of compliance, but states that the circumstances in his life have over taken him.

“He is the primary carer for his partner who has recently spent a lot of time in hospital while he has battled with his own mental health issues and dealt with his own drug problem.”

Mr Hewitt said: “We have just discovered that White’s drug addiction is being monitored by Change Grow Live in his home town with appropriate medication. He is on a high dosage.”

Judge Lawrie said to White: “I am going to defer sentence for three months. I was going to lock you up for squandering the opportunity of turning your life around.

“If you address the suspended sentence order issues I will deal with you accordingly, but should you not liaise with probation and others trying to help you there will only be one outcome – custody.

“You have three months to prove yourself.”