The case against a High Roding man charged with trying to sell drugs to an undercover police officer in a supermarket car park has been dropped today (Aug 30) as his trial was set to get underway.

Alexander Ford, 21, of Broadfield, High Roding, had denied two offences of possessing cocaine and ecstasy with intent to supply on February 6 last year at Tesco in Springfield, Chelmsford.

The charges dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) involved possession of 5.766g of cocaine and 13.294g of powder MDMA (ecstasy), said to be worth between £750 and £1,770.

A co-accused, Calum Allington, 19, of The Street, High Roding, was given a two-year sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to both offences at Chelmsford Crown Court in August 2015.

Allington was also ordered to attend a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement and 36 hours at an attendance centre.

Today (Aug 30) at Chelmsford Crown Court, prosecutor Nick Bonehill said the CPS was offering no evidence against Mr Ford.

Mr Bonehill said other information had come to light and “alongside other difficulties in the case” had led to the CPS’s decision. There was not a realistic prospect of conviction and nor was it in the public interest.

At Allington’s hearing last year, the court heard that he had borrowed £250 to buy concert tickets to treat his girlfriend but was then threatened and forced into supplying class A drugs to pay it off.

He was sitting in a car in Tesco car park with half a bag of mixed drugs when a police officer, not in uniform, saw him using his mobile phone as he drove in and went over to speak to him.

Allington wound down the window and immediately said: “How many grams do you want?”

The court heard that Allington was told if he didn’t deal the drugs and repay the debt then a man would cut his mum and dad.