A Ffairfach man whose "ears are eating themselves" smokes three-quarters of an ounce of cannabis each week to ease the pain, magistrates have been told.

Andrew Patrick O'Connor, of 4 Talhardd Villas, appeared at Llanelli Court to admit possessing 57 grammes of the Class B drug.

The court was told how the 27-year-old dad of one suffered from a severe case of tympanic pocket retraction whereby the eardrum is set too deeply into the inner ear leading to a build-up of pressure and causes the crumbling of the bones within the ear.

The condition also causes migraine headaches.

The court was told how O’Connor had been prescribed Co-codamol by his doctor but the medication did little to ease the pain.

Sharon Anderson, prosecuting, described how, when officers carried out a search warrant on July 10, O'Connor immediately handed over a container holding a small quantity of cannabis and told officers on the doorstep and said he was "a heavy smoker".

He then led them to a locked safe in the front room inside which was a plastic container holding a larger quantity of herbal cannabis.

The combined weight of the two containers was 57 grammes, roughly two ounces.

O'Connor told officers he had bought the drugs for £300.

Ruth Meyrick, defending, said O'Connor had an "extremely serious ear infection".

"His ears are basically eating themselves,” she told the court.

"He is a heavy smoker due to what is a serious medical condition, but he smokes purely for medical purposes and has no other involvement with drugs - he buys enough to last him a month so that he does not have to become involved with what he calls 'those types of people'."

O'Connor admitted possessing the drugs.

Magistrates told him: "You are using the wrong coping mechanism for your pain."

He was fined £100 and ordered to pay a £180 court charge, £85 prosecution costs and a £20 legal surcharge.