A drug dealer ran off from police through the city and into the Victoria Centre with cannabis and a large knife on him.
Police spotted a group of three males acting suspiciously in the city centre.
Dante McKoy was one of them and he ran.
Aged 17 at the time, he went into the shopping centre and exited onto Glasshouse Street, Nottingham.
He dumped a glass jar with six deals of cannabis inside, weighing one-gram each, and a large kitchen knife after the incident just before 5pm on October 6, 2017.
The knife was recovered from a bin, and the drugs, Nottingham Crown Court heard.
McKoy went on to plead guilty to supplying cannabis, possessing cannabis with intent to supply and possessing a knife.
Seven more one-gram deals of cannabis were found at his home and two more amounts of cannabis.
There were scales with cannabis on them, £1,041 cash, and the drug benzocaine - an anesthetic.
McKoy, now 21 and of Garforth Close, Whitemoor, had no knowledge of the benzocaine, suggested the cash found was legitimate, and made no comment to police about the cannabis or knife.
But police got into his mobile phone and messages on there "made it quite clear he was supplying cannabis on a commercial street dealing level for some time", explained Alan Murphy, prosecuting.
The drugs, cash, knife and paraphernalia have been forfeited.
Judge Stuart Rafferty QC, who sentenced McKoy, said: "I read your letter with interest. It is refreshing to see somebody is prepared to tell the truth about themselves to realise just how easy it is to be misled by other people.
"I don't think for a moment this was your enterprise but you were lured into it by other people".
He imposed an 18-month community order on McKoy and ordered he do 100 hours of unpaid work.
He said McKoy was arrested on October 6, 2017. The drug officer's report was not available and "perhaps in part due to the fact you would not allow access to your phone", said the judge.
McKoy then appeared before magistrates on January 27 this year, and at the crown court in February, before he was sentenced on Wednesday, November 11.
