A failed asylum seeker from Albania has been told he may be deported after he was 'coerced' into selling drugs by a gang.

Klevis Rroshi, 21, from Haringey, was arrested in Thatcham in January. The police caught him selling cocaine on the street.

After being arrested, Rroshi told investigators that he had been approached by a gang, who pressured him into selling drugs in order to settle a debt.

Sentencing the defendant on June 19, Judge Neil Millard told him: "You were approached by some Albanian males that you did not know. You were upset, and they offered you cocaine to try, which you did.

"You didn't have any money to pay them, and so they applied pressure and coercion to you, falling short of duress, to sell drugs for them to pay for the drugs you'd taken."

The judge accepted that Rroshi played a 'lesser role' in the drug trade, but stressed that, due to his immigration status, he was not eligible for a suspended sentence.

The court heard that he arrived in the UK in 2021, after smuggling himself in in the back of a lorry. His asylum application was rejected, and, at the time of his offending, he was due for deportation.

Judge Millard said that Rroshi is of previous good character, and described him as a 'young man with plenty of potential'.

He received an immediate 20-month prison sentence - half of which he will serve in custody.

The judge told Rroshi: "It is likely that you will be deported by the end, or towards the end, of that 10-month period."