Man found hiding in Highland bathroom with cocaine and heroin worth more than £4000 receives sentence in court
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A SHERIFF sent a stern message to drug dealers in the Highlands by sending a 21-year-old to prison for a year.
Sheriff Sara Matheson told Kevin Woodward today: “The Scottish courts have repeatedly emphasised that being concerned in the supply of drugs will be treated seriously.”
Despite hearing from solicitor advocate Mike Chapman that his client was making “good progress” on a current community payback order and there had been no further offending, the sheriff told Woodward: “There is no alternative to custody.”
At a previous hearing, the court was told that police raided an Inverness property and found Woodward, from Chester, hiding in the bathroom with more than £4000 worth of cocaine and heroin.
Woodward admitted being concerned in the supply of the two narcotics on May 2, 2019 in an address in Johnston Place and had sentence deferred until today for a background report.
His 19-year-old co-accused, Kelvin Franklin, described as a Liverpool prisoner, admitted possessing two wraps of cocaine and two of heroin in the same property on the same date. Franklin was fined £600 but as he is a serving prisoner, no time was given for payment and the corresponding alternative jail sentence was incorporated in his current one.
Fiscal depute David Morton said Franklin arrived at Johnston Place just as police were about to exercise their search warrant. He was arrested and searched and the drugs were found.
When Woodward was discovered, he had two plastic bags, each containing 32 wraps of the Class A drugs, in recognised deals.
Further drugs in a total of 21 recognised deals were found in the living room.
All the drugs had a maximum value of £4200.
