A YOUNG ex-soldier caught dealing high purity cocaine worth up to £47,000 has told he could be spared jail after a sheriff learned he had suffered stress during combat operations in Afghanistan.

George Hunt, 23 of Dundee, was serving as a gunner in the First Royal Horse Artillery when he began dealing the class A drug.

A week after he was discharged from the Army in October for failing a drugs test police, acting on a tip-off, stopped him at a set of traffic lights in Dundee.

They searched his car and found a 125 gram bag of 75 percent purity cocaine. It is far stronger than the 10 percent pure drug commonly found on the streets.

Officers also found two kilos of a bulking agent used to cut the drug into smaller deals - meaning he could have turned the substances into drugs worth up to £46,850.

Sheriff Alastair Brown told Hunt: “In your case I should start thinking in terms of a three year sentence.

“I have heard that you have been suffering from something akin to combat stress.

“I’m aware that the UK takes decisions about the deployment of troops which places those troops in a stressful situation and that some suffer psychological difficulties as a result, and I’ve heard criticism made of the provision for helping with that.

“I’m willing to explore that issue further.”

The court heard that a drug dealer identified him as a vulnerable individual, who could be used in the supply chain.

Hunt pleaded guilty on indictment to drug dealing.

Sentence was deferred for a psychological report and he was bailed.