A teenage drug dealer caught with ecstasy and cocaine in his underpants has had his jail term cut because of the wait he faced before police took action against him.

Steffan Rhys Lloyd Evans, now 20, was 18 when he was caught “red-handed” dealing the class A drugs to students at Aberystwyth’s Pier Pressure sea front night club on 17 November 2019.

He was jailed for 18 months at Swansea Crown Court on Friday, after previously admitting possessing ecstasy and cocaine with intent to supply.

Evans, of The Nook, 12 Dinas Terrace, Aberystwyth, was sentenced in court 19 months after being arrested, and 17 months after he was charged with the offences.

Judge Geriaint Walters allowed Evans one third off a four-and-a-half year sentence for the two offences, because of an early guilty plea, and reduced the sentence by a further 18 months due to both the delay in proceeding with the case, and his age at the time.

He also awarded Dyfed-Powys Police the cash made by Evans dealing drugs, saying it should be used to “speed up” the prosecution of Class A drug cases.

Earlier Ashanti-Jade Warton, for the prosecution, said that Evans had originally been arrested after a security guard at the nightclub had seen him acting suspiciously in the toilets and called in the police.

She said that Evans had “agreed to be searched” and two mobile phones were found, along with £360 in cash, and a key for a room at the Queensbridge Hotel.

When the room was later searched, police found 0.3629 grams of coccaine of 80 per cent purity in a sports bag together with a set of scales.

He was later strip-searched and two “wraps” of cocaine and three of MDMA (ecstasy) were found in his underpants, together with a Kinder egg, which also contained wraps of class A drugs.

Ms Warton said the 12.54 grams of ecstasy had a maximum value of £520, and a further 1.49 grams of cocaine up to £200.

Evans had been told at a previous hearing that a jail term was inevitable.

But Ian Ibrahim, defending, argued that Evans would better benefit from a lengthy non-custodial sentence.

Judge Walters rejected the plea after hearing that Evans had committed a public order offence and been arrested for possessing cannabis since the events of November 2019.

“You have not learned your lesson, young man,” he told Evans.

Jailing him for 18 months, he said he had reduced the sentence from four-and-a-half-years due to his early guilty plea, in recognition of his age at the time of the offence, and the “significant delay” before he was charged.

“There was no justification to delay proceedings when you were caught red handed,” he told Evans.

He said the police had now “acknowledged” that.

The judge added that it was “vital” that the police acted without delay when it came to class A drugs.