THREE men were caught trying to smuggle thousands of pounds worth of ‘laughing gas’ into a Hampshire music festival.

But Leon Palmer, Ashton Gordon and Tapiwa Murdazikwa all avoided a prison sentence, due to a legal loophole.

The trio were caught with 2,000 canisters of nitrous oxide gas when they were stopped outside Soundclash Festival in October 2016, attended by more than 16,000 partygoers in October 2016.

They had driven into a restricted area of the dance music event, held at Somerley House, near Ringwood, when they were approached by management staff.

Following a search of their vehicle, the group were found to be in possession of the 2,000 laughing gas canisters – with a value of about £9,000.

They were also found to have security passes and uniforms, as well as balloons – used to inhale the gas for a short short euphoric burst.

At Southampton Crown Court the three men avoided a jail term, due to the relatively new legal status of nitrous oxide.

The court heard how the drug, known as laughing gas or ‘hippy crack’, was made illegal as part of the Psychoactive Substances Act in January 2016 – less than nine months before the trio were caught.

Prosecutor Adam Norris said there were no direct guidelines the court could use to sentence the trio, who denied knowing the canisters were illegal.

Murdazikwa, 25, of Brentwood, Essex, was employed by computer giant Microsoft before entering a guilty plea.

He had since regained employment as an estate agent and was planning to re-start his semi-professional footballing career. Palmer, 34, of Denmark Road, London, was described as an “asset to his community”.

Meanwhile, father-of-two Gordon, 25, also of Denmark Road, was said to be intent on starting a business working alongside charity the Prince’s Trust.

Sentencing the trio to unpaid work, Judge Gary Burrell said: “There is no doubt that you had a lot of this stuff, but I accept, of course, that you didn’t know it was illegal.

“You have shown me in mitigation that you are all of good character with no recent relevant convictions.

“I take the view that this does pass the custody threshold, because of the amount of drug you had would sell for some £9,000.

“But that being said I’m not going to impose a sentence, nor a suspended sentence.”

Judge Burrell instead sentenced Palmer and Gordon to 100 hours each of unpaid work.

Murdazikwa was ordered to do 50 hours of unpaid work and 15 days drug rehabilitation.

It was the fourth instalment of the event and included sets from drum and bass artist Andy C, house icon Jamie Jones, long standing hit makers Groove Armada and a special DJ set from the world renowned Pendulum.

The fifth instalment of the festival was expected to take place around May last year.

However a follow-up Soundclash Festival has never materialised.