Jake William Dawe, 22, was jailed for three months by magistrate Peter Dare SC on April 18 after pleading guilty to three counts of supplying a prohibited drug.

Mr Dare sentenced Dawe to a one-month fixed jail term starting on April 18 for one offence and gave him concurrent 10-month jail sentences, with three months’ non-parole, from May 18 for the other two offences.

The crimes involved Dawe selling ecstasy to an undercover officer in a pub and in a fast food outlet after a police strike force was formed to investigate the supply of prohibited drugs in the Young area.

“It would be easy to dismiss this case as merely involving the sale of 15 capsules of ecstasy for a total of $450 and to say that a jail sentence is too severe,” Mr Dare said in his sentencing remarks.

“Such a mindset ignores the consequences of the distribution of dangerous drugs of any kind into this community without a thought as to where they will end up and just how many lives could be led on a path to destruction as a result.

“It needs to be said at the outset that the drug in question is an insidious and dangerous substance that over time it has been responsible for the deaths of many young people who were foolish and naive enough to experiment with it.”

Mr Dare said no penalty other than imprisonment was appropriate.

But Judge Phillip Mahony disagreed with Magistrate Dare when hearing Dawe’s severity appeal in Wagga District Court last week.

Judge Mahony upheld Dawe’s appeal and set aside Mr Dare’s orders.

Judge Mahony placed Dawe on a six-month good behaviour bond for the first offence.

Dawe also received concurrent 11-month suspended jail sentences for the second and third supplies.