A YOUNG mother agreed to stash cocaine in her home for someone else, because she thought it was only cannabis.

The drugs were found in the top of a tall kitchen cupboard at Mary-Lou Lowe’s home in Hutchinson Close, Tiptree, on May 3, by police called out on a different matter.

The 24-year-old told officers she had had some work done at her home and agreed to store the drugs in lieu of payment.

She insisted she thought the package – 8.87grammes of cocaine – was really cannabis, Colchester Magistrates’ Court was told Lowe had refused to tell police who had given her it.

Her lawyer, Roger Brice, said she had never been involved with drugs.

She had kept the cocaine in a kitchen cupboard which would not have been accessible to her children.

Lowe, who had admitted possessing the drug at an earlier hearing, was given a 12-month community order, which includes carrying out 60 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay £95 costs.