A crack cocaine dealer caught hiding the highly-addictive drug in a Kinder Egg has been spared jail by a sympathetic judge.
Lucy Sirrs, 23, was a "promising" and "perfect" schoolgirl who suffered a "fall from grace", becoming addicted to heroin and selling drugs to fund her habit, a court heard.
Five months ago, she admitted drug dealing after £790 of crack cocaine was found inside a plastic capsule in Hull in July 2018.
Judge David Tremberg delayed sentencing to give her the opportunity to her to turn her life around, and when she returned to court on Monday he agreed she had passed his test, HullLive reports.
Sirrs was sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years, and must complete 100 hours unpaid work and 12 rehabilitation days.
Judge Tremberg told her at Hull Crown Court: "You have kept out of trouble and shown evidence of a pro-social lifestyle.
"Over the last five months the trust the court has placed in you has been well founded.
"You have found stable accommodation where you are well thought of and there you are helping to support younger people more vulnerable than yourself.
"You are on a path towards more long term accommodation and have found some seasonal work and continue to look for work and have remained free of class A drugs.
"You are still young and have your whole life ahead of you - don't waste it".
At the original hearing in September last year, Sirrs mum burst into tears as she described the young woman's fall.
The mother said: “She stopped coming round, she distanced herself away from us.
“Before she moved out she was perfect, she was doing really well for herself at college.
"Her teachers said she was excelling on her hair and beauty course.”
In 2018, Sirrs called her mum and told her she “had taken heroin and said she was going to die”.
Sirrs pleaded guilty to possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply crack cocaine.
She also admitted three charges of supplying heroin, cocaine and cannabis between 2014 and 2018.
Dale Brook, defending, said said Sirrs' “fall from grace” was obvious and his client was looking for work.
At the September hearing, Judge Tremberg said that he wanted to see “real progress” and demanded that Sirrs stay out of trouble.
He told her: "Drugs wreck lives, do you understand me?
"Your descent into drug use took you from a promising schoolgirl who was studying hair and beauty, and somebody with no previous convictions.
“But you started to mix with bad company which sucked you into drug use and drug dealing.
“You recognise the mistakes that you have made and if I was sentencing you today I would be sending you immediately to prison.
“But, I want to test your resolve by choosing to sentence you in February to see if you have made positive steps.”
