A JUDGE has hit out at crown prosecutors over a Cwmbran drugs case in which an expensive, two-month police surveillance operation was carried out.

A prosecutor accepted a single guilty plea to a charge of supplying cannabis in the case of Richard Hughes, aged 34, of St Andrew's Close, Cwmbran.

But, said Recorder Stephen Hopkins, QC, all the evidence obtained by the Gwent police drugs squad had been at the disposal of the prosecutor when the guilty plea was offered in August.

And, the judge said, it had been "chucked out of the window". He said the decision of the Crown on August 23 to accept the basis of plea "beggared belief" and he added: "The police must be outraged".

He directed that the Crown prosecution service and the barrister who then represented them provide him and the drugs squad with a written explanation as to why all their time and effort were wasted.

"The Crown should have woken up to the reality of the situation," he said. Hughes was sentenced to a community rehabilitation order for 12 months and ordered to pay £300 costs after pleading guilty to a charge of supplying cannabis.

The judge said that it was undoubtedly a "proper and efficient" police operation costing much time and money. He told Hughes: "You are a very lucky man indeed."

After the hearing, a Gwent police spokesman said: "It was a lengthy operation and very intensive, and we are disappointed with the result."

Prosecutor Ieuan Morris, who was not present when the initial plea was tendered, told Cardiff crown court that for two months earlier this year police officers kept lengthy observations on the home of Hughes.

On April , a cannabis user went there and in the kitchen Hughes cut an amount of cannabis - 277 grams - from a block, weighed it on brass scales and received between £30 and £60 for it. Police later went into the house and arrested Hughes.

The recorder said the papers available to the prosecution at the first hearing indicated that the cannabis user had gone there three or four times and that there was "heavy pedestrian traffic".

Robert Buckland, defending, said Hughes had a cannabis habit and he was now being helped by counselling.