A cannabis dealer found with £4,220 in rolled-up bank notes claims the cash was saved from his student loan to buy a car, a jury has been told.

Student Brume Tadafe, 21, admits possessing skunk cannabis with intent to supply but denies cash found in his flat is from drug dealing, Kingston Crown Court heard yesterday.

Police found £100 in a box in his bedroom along with some cannabis, which Tadafe admitted was from dealing.

But he denies that £4,220 rolled up in a jacket pocket in his wardrobe and £230 in a drawer in his bedside cabinet are connected to his criminal dealings.

Prosecuting Elizabeth Lockwood said: “He told police he saved that money from his student loan and also he was given some money by his mum to buy a car.

“The Crown say looking at that evidence then you could be sure that money comes from that drug dealing.”

Police drug experts say notes found in the flat with 11 names and which record various amounts of money, as well as evidence from his Blackberry indicate he was a dealer, the court heard.

Ms Lockwood said: "It clearly shows he was selling cannabis for money, not high amounts on the text messages but 10 or 20 deals a month making money, the crown says, from drug dealing."

PC Ian Porter, from the Norbiton safer neighbourhood team, told the court that Tadafe had given him the explanation about buying a car shortly before he arrested him at his flat in Old Mill Court, Villiers Road, in Kingston, on May 19.

Tadafe, who gave the court an address in Deptford, denies two counts of possessing criminal property.

The trial continues.