It seems incredible that a teenage drug dealer who was actually caught in possession of 100 ‘wraps’ of heroin while on bail for other drug offences is not today locked up in a young offenders’ institute.

Every right-thinking person will surely agree that a custodial sentence would have been entirely appropriate.

After all, a rehabilitation order and curfew neither properly punishes this youth nor protects the public from any possible reoffending – while as a deterrent it seems next to worthless in this case.

But it would be wrong to blame the judge as it would appear his hands were tied after the Crown Prosecution Service had already allowed the Youth Court to sentence the teenager for the offence committed while on bail.

Had both crimes been considered by the same court at the same time, then the picture may well have been different.

After all, an astonished Judge Jonathan Rose told the 17-year-old yesterday: “You should be going through that door, down to the cells and thence to a detention and training centre.”

Instances such as this can only erode the public’s faith in the criminal justice system.

The best we can now hope for is that a thorough and quick review of this matter is carried out and lessons learnt so that any appropriate measures can be taken to prevent such a situation arising in the future.