A man who maintained he drove from Merseyside to Aberdeen for “a night out” and woke up during a drug raid was acquitted of cocaine trafficking today.
Vincent Sheerin (30) told a court that he had arranged to pick up a hire car before heading north to meet up with his “brother-in-law” Peter Walters.
Jurors heard that Sheerin had “nodded off” at an apartment in Aberdeen after they met following the 350 mile journey.
Sheerin said he came round after police arrived at the premises at Skene House, Whitehall Place, in Aberdeen.
He told the High Court in Edinburgh: “I woke up and Peter Walters was screaming and there was a couple of guys wrestling with him.”
He said he had been asleep on a couch and added: “It took me a couple of seconds to realise what was going on.”
High purity cocaine, a bulking agent, items that could be used for cutting the Class A drug and cash were in the flat.
Sheerin’s defence counsel Craig Findlater asked him if he had anything to do with that and he replied: “Nothing at all.”
Police found £220 on Sheerin.
He said it was “money for the night out and the rest of it was for petrol on the way home”.
Sheerin, from Liverpool, had denied being concerned in the supply of cocaine on October 11 in 2013 at a room at Skene House.
A jury found the charge against him not proven on a majority verdict.
The trial judge, Lady Wolffe, told Sheerin the jury had returned a verdict of acquittal and discharged him from the dock.
Mr Findlater told jurors: “Being in a room with drugs is not in itself a criminal offence.”
Police had Walters, also from Liverpool but who was living in the Mastrick area of Aberdeen, under surveillance at the time. He is the brother of Sheerin’s partner.
He was seen to get out of a car in Aberdeen and get into another vehicle before officers carried out the raid.
The jury heard that Liverpool and the Merseyside area was a common source for the powerful stimulant drug, cocaine, found in Aberdeen.
Walters (31) was jailed for five years and three months after he was caught in the raid with cocaine worth pounds 32,000 on the streets.
He earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug.judge who jailed him, Lord Turnbull, told him he was “a principle participant” in the drug supply operation