Musician Linus Burdick bought a £700 bar of cannabis so he could make drug-filled flapjacks for himself, a court heard.

Police found the block, which could make 1,000 joints, as well as a few smaller pieces, scales and other equipment when they searched his room in a hostel in Iffley Road, east Oxford, in January.

Nigel Daly, prosecuting, told a jury at Oxford Crown Courtyesterday that Burdick, 33, now of Cowley Road, was a dealer and bought the cannabis in bulk to make money to fund his own habit.

Unemployed Burdick, who admitted possession but denied intending to supply the drug, said he baked a quarter of an ounce of cannabis a day with oats and butter.

The jury found him not guilty and Judge MaryJane Mowat fined him £75 for possession.

Det Con Paul Norley, a drugs squad officer based at Cowley, told the court that dealers would buy 9oz bars of cannabis, such as the one Burdick had, for between £500 and £750, and could make about £1,080 by selling it in street deals.

But Burdick told the jury: "I was cooking it with oats and butter like flapjacks. I was intending to take cannabis to help me with my work which is why I had so much of it."

He said he was struggling at the time to get a record deal and with the production of his hi-tech dance music.

"I'm not interested in selling drugs at all. I know that I wouldn't like to take responsibility for what happened to somebody after they had taken the drug," he added.

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