A crack cocaine supplier from Oxfordshire has received a suspended prison term after being caught distributing the drug in a town.

Joshua Holmes, aged 27, was given a 23-month custodial sentence suspended for two years at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday March 19.

The defendant, who resides on Macarthur Road in Sandwell, which falls within Birmingham, had previously been convicted of involvement in supplying crack cocaine following an incident in Abingdon.

The court additionally mandated that he complete six days of rehabilitation activity along with a specified quantity of unpaid community work.

He was also required to surrender drugs and mobile phones, which were subsequently destroyed, along with £50 in currency, and a standard victim surcharge was applied.

Holmes was not the sole individual to face sentencing during that week.

On Monday March 16, Laurence Whittaker, from Cowley Road in Oxford, received an aggregate sentence of eight years at Oxford Crown Court.

He was handed two prison terms to be served consecutively for offences committed on January 10, 2025, with six years imposed for section 18 wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm directed at Lindsay Webber, who is the mother of his former partner.

For assault occasioning actual bodily harm committed against his former partner Jessica Clements, he received two years.

The court issued ten-year restraining orders prohibiting contact with both women.

When passing sentence, the judge stated to Mr Whittaker that what he had done to them that evening had affected every part of their lives.