A DRUG dealer has been jailed for putting lives at risk at an Essex music festival.

Craig Quorn, 27, was jailed for 15 months after being caught with 52 ecstasy tablets and 36 cannisters of nitrous oxide at the Brownstock Festival near South Woodham Ferrers.

He admitted possession with intent to supply after being arrested seconds after buying them on August 30.

He claimed they were for him and his friends but Judge Christopher Ball QC, sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday, sent out a warning to anyone caught dealing drugs who comes in front of him.

He said: “People who push pills are pushing the potential for death.

“You were found in possession of 52 ecstasy tablets apparently with a view to distributing them among friends.

The fact is you had them and intended to pass them on.”

Quorn, a scaffolder and HGV driver of Oak Road, Thorpe-Le-Soken, will serve half of his sentence behind bars.