Fined for one Ecstasy tablet too many

Timothy Guest had been arrested after he was stopped close to the NEC, which was hosting a '˜Slammin Vinyl' New Year's Eve dance event on December 31 last year.

Guest (24) of Marine Drive West, Bognor Regis, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing 20 Ecstasy tablets, but denied having them with intent to supply.

His pleas were accepted by the prosecution on Thursday even though it had accepted he had them for himself and a friend.

Prosecutor Saleema Mahmood explained: 'There was a drugs amnesty where, if he had been found with 19 tablets he would not have been arrested.

'The Crown accepts he was using them only for himself and his friend, and in the circumstances the Crown finds the pleas acceptable.'

Guest had no previous convictions, and his barrister Tom Schofield said: 'He came very close to the threshold which would have saved him having to come to court.'

Recorder Barry Berlin told Guest: 'Carrying Ecstasy pills around with you is a serious business. You have pleaded guilty to simple possession, but you accepted you were going to share them. Had you been convicted of possession with intent there would have been no alternative other than for the court to send you to prison.'