A blundering drug courier caught transporting about £30,000 of cocaine and cannabis through Aberdeen has been jailed for 16 months.
Former AWPR worker Joginder Niner, 30, was transporting the drugs from the east Midlands when he made a fateful pitstop to visit his girlfriend in the city.
The city’s sheriff court heard that led to an incident and the involvement of the police, who discovered his stash of class A and B drugs.
Niner’s woes deepened as they also discovered he had been drink driving and driving without insurance.
He was described as “hardly the world’s best drug dealer or courier” as he appeared in the dock to plead guilty to multiple offences, committed on May 22 last year.
Fiscal depute Stephanie Ross told the court heard that police were looking to trace Niner, whose address was given as Esslemont Avenue in Aberdeen, on another matter.
He was spotted on CCTV driving a silver Audi on CCTV on Dee Street at about 4.10am.
Police officers in the area arrived a short time later and met Niner, who by this point had parked up the car and walked onto Union Street.
They noticed he appeared to be a drunk and he subsequently admitted that he had been drinking and was driving a friend’s car. He failed a roadside breath test and was arrested,
Miss Ross told the court that a subsequent test revealed he had 35microgrammes of alcohol in 100mls of breath. The legal limit is just 22mcgs.
When the officers took him back to the car they detected a strong smell of cannabis from inside and carried out a search.
They discovered a holdall which contained £19,450 of cannabis and £9,050 of cocaine.
The fiscal told the court that police checks revealed Niner was not insured to drive the vehicle.
Defence agent Mike Monro told the court Niner had lost his job on the bypass and had been offered cash to courier drugs from the west midlands to Aberdeen.
Mr Monro added that when he returned to the city he had a falling out with his girlfriend which led to the incident that brought him to the attention of the police.
He said Niner was “hardly the world’s best drug dealer or courier” as he managed to attract the attention of police not once but twice, knowing he had the drugs in his car.
“He was stupid, naive and easily caught”, Mr Monro added.
In addition to being jailed, Niner was banned from driving for three years.