A bungling drug dealer caught peddling ecstasy to strangers in a nightclub toilet has been jailed for 16 months.

Christian Mooney was trying to seal his first deal after buying £100 of the powdered drug, also known as MDMA, and dividing it up into five £25 deals.

But bouncers at Club Ice, near Westbury, were concerned about the 21-year-old’s activity in the toilets on Saturday, April 6 and asked to search him.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon crown court he handed over the drugs and told them ‘It’s MDMA, I don’t take drugs,’ and ‘I don’t take it: I just sell it to make money”.

As well as the 2.24 grams of ecstasy in five wraps he was also found with a tenth of a gram of the powder in a small paper twist and about £100 worth of cocaine.

When he was questioned by the police he said he had bought the ecstasy and divided it into five wraps to sell at a profit but the cocaine was purely for his own use.

“He went on to say it was his first attempt at being a drug dealer. He has a good job which he enjoys, a girlfriend and it was all a big mistake he exceedingly regrets,” he said.

The court was told he had been a user of cannabis since he was 17 and cocaine since he started going to pubs and clubs at the age of 18.

Mooney, of Kingfisher Drive, Westbury, pleaded guilty to possessing a class A drug with intent to supply and possession of cocaine.

Guy Draper, defending, said that his client had bought the ecstasy with the intention of shaving a small amount off for himself and selling the rest for what he paid for it.

“If there was a lie, it is that he doesn’t take drugs. The gain he sought was to buy at one price, sell at the same price, and take some for his own,” he said.

Mr Draper said it wasn’t a case where he was selling drugs as part of a larger dealing operation.

“This was a very bungling attempt to sell drugs by someone who hadn’t done it before. This was a first foray, and a stumbling first foray, into selling drugs,” he said.

“I would submit this is quite clearly an isolated offence borne out of naïve stupidity. He has not done it before and there is no question he won’t do it again.”

Mr Draper handed in a letter from the managing director at the company where he works saying his client was clearly a well liked man.

He urged the court to impose a suspended sentence fearing a jail term would ruin his prospects and increase his chances of reoffending.

Since his arrest he said he had seen the errors of his ways and had stopped using cocaine altogether.

Passing sentence Judge Euan Ambrose said “You were plainly intending to sell these drugs in a nightclub to people you didn’t know, therefore putting class A drugs into circulation, and you were intending to do so for financial gain. That is a serious matter.

“This was, I am told, your first attempt at being a drug dealer. But for the bouncers intervention you would have been dealing these drugs and no doubt more in future.

“If you take class A drugs into a nightclub intending to sell them to strangers in the club you are putting class A drugs into circulation.

“If you do as you did, with your eyes open, you can’t expect anything less than a prison sentence.”

As well as jailing him for 16 months he also ordered he pay a £100 victim surcharge and forfeit the drugs confiscated by police.