Erlestoke man found with powdered ecstacy after pub arrest (From Wiltshire Times)

Erlestoke man found with powdered ecstacy after pub arrest

3:42pm Friday 8th March 2013 in Wiltshire

A drinker caught in a Swindon pub with hundreds of pounds of powdered ecstasy which he was to sell to his mates has been handed a community order.

Morgan Halsall-Baxter was causing trouble and after being thrown out of the bar by doormen, police were called.

When the 21-year-old from Woodsview, Erlestoke was searched he was found with a number of wraps of the class A drug on him.

After hearing he had given up drugs and only had the large quantity as he had got them cheap to share with friends, Judge Douglas Field imposed a 12-month community order and told him to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and pay a £60 victim surcharge.

The defendant was arrested at the Sir Daniel Arms in Swindon on October and when asked if he had anything on him offered up a small wrap of drugs in his wallet.

Then during a strip search officers found a number of bags containing ecstasy, properly known as MDMA. Halsall-Baxter had 16.02 grams of the drugs, worth about £540, in wraps weighing one or two grams.