A MAN has escaped punishment after police found cocaine inside his hotel room.

Officers were dispatched to Briar Court Hotel in Birchencliffe in the early hours of June 28 following concerns for the welfare of a woman there.

She answered the door and police also found Munir Ahmed inside the room along with three small bags containing white powder on a table.

Prosecutor Andy Wills told Kirklees magistrates: “When asked what these were he responded: “Just a bit of cocaine.”

“He said that he had been chilling with a friend in the hotel room.”

Ahmed, of Park Road in Oldham, pleaded guilty to possessing a class A drug.

Video Loading

The 40-year-old said that he didn’t take drugs regularly and declined to give the details of his supplier.

His solicitor Paul Blanchard added: “It would have been simple for him to say that it belonged to her (his friend) and not him.”

Magistrates gave him a 12-month conditional discharge.

Ahmed will still have to pay £85 costs and £25 victim surcharge.

Magistrates ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the cocaine.