A man caught with drug equipment has been sentenced to four weeks behind bars.

Eric Richardson, 32, admitted having the item, made from a metal socket and wire, when he appeared in Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

The court heard that police arrested Richardson, from Warwick, in connection with an unrelated matter on August 21 last year.

Richardson told officers that he was “fixing his shoes” when he dropped the item, which had trace amounts of cocaine, in the police car.

Richardson, who suffers from mental health and substance-use challenges, was sentenced to one week in prison in November after he had a separate piece of drug equipment.

Magistrate Maria Sofianos ordered that Richardson’s four-week sentence begin after the end of a continuing prison term, which he is serving for intruding on a woman’s privacy.

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