A DRUG dealer, who told police he was doing people a favour by supplying them with ecstasy and cannabis, has had his prison sentence cut by almost a third.

After he was arrested with 81 ecstasy tablets and half a kilo of cannabis, Keith Smith, aged 33, told officers that he was providing an "altruistic" public service and had taken a "calculated risk" of getting caught. Smith, of South Avenue, Leigh, was sentenced to five years in jail on February 4. But Mr Justice Butterfield sitting at the Criminal Appeal Court in London yesterday cut that to three-and-a-half years. The judge said that the sentencing judge had "placed him too high on the scale of drug offending", considering his guilty plea.