A man who was caught storing a haul of heroin worth more than £100,000 on the streets was jailed for 28 months today.
Kevin Anderson turned up at his home in Peterhead, in Aberdeenshire, after police had forced entry to the house and secured the premises following the receipt of intelligence.
A sniffer dog alerted officers to the potential presence of drugs in a room and more than a kilo of heroin was found along with a smaller quantity of crack cocaine.
Unemployed Anderson (34) also known as Neilson, admitted being concerned in the supply of both Class A drugs between February 25 and 26 this year at the house in Catto Drive, when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh.
A judge told him he would have faced a prison term of three and a half years for the drugs crimes but for his guilty pleas.
Lady Scott said: “You stored the drugs in your house in Peterhead for a short period.”
The judge said that she took into account his limited involvement and that the offence was at “the low end of the chain of supply”.
Advocate depute Tim Niven-Smith said on February 26 police received intelligence that a large quantity of heroin and cocaine was being stored at the property.
He said information suggested that the drugs were to be removed from the premises by persons unknown that day.
The prosecutor said police attended at the house to secure the premises and prevent destruction of evidence while they awaited a search warrant.
Entry was forced to the property and no one was at home at the time but Anderson later arrived.
A drug detection dog was brought in and while a search was being conducted in a bedroom it gave an indication that drugs were in a holdall.of heroin were found along with smaller amounts of crack cocaine.
The advocate depute said the heroin recovered had the potential to be worth £115,000 on the streets and the crack was worth in excess of £13,000.
He said that the Crown accepted Anderson’s guilty pleas on the basis that he was providing a safe house for the drugs.
Anderson told police that he had been given the drugs the day before and was told to store them. He maintained he had got into debt and was to store the drugs in return for having the debt reduced.
Defence solicitor advocate Shahid Latif said: “He had accrued a debt linked to his own drug use.”
He said Anderson’s criminal record was redolent of someone who had struggled with drug addiction at times.
Mr Latif said Anderson was sorry for the offence and added: “He acknowledges that there are no exceptional circumstances and that a custodial sentence is the only appropriate disposal.”
The defence lawyer said: “He now wishes to close this chapter of his life.”