A heroin dealer whose former partner claimed he has turned his life around was spared a jail sentence yesterday.
Ian Stewart became a target during a police surveillance operation and was seen to visit drug stashes in wooded areas in Inverness on several occasions.
After one of his visits to an area by the B861 Inverness to Farr road officers recovered hidden heroin worth £5,490 on the streets.
The cache had the potential to provide almost 5,500 “tenner” bags of the drug.
Stewart, 31, was later found to have also sent a text message from his mobile phone saying: “I can’t get to my stash ppl about hope it ain’t coppers.”
He was also discovered to have been in phone contact with a drugs courier who travelled from England to Inverness on three separate occasions. During one of his trips he met the courier in Inverness.
The drugs mule was detained by police on his third trip on arrival in Inverness and was found to be in possession of 132 grams of heroin with a potential street value of £13,220.
Stewart, of Hawthorne Park, Muir of Ord, earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug between October 1 and November 30 in 2012 on the Inverness to Farr road and elsewhere in Inverness.
The High Court in Edinburgh was told that over the two month period Stewart, who used the drug, had acted as a local heroin dealer in the Inverness area acting on the instructions and directions of others.
A judge told Stewart that normally he would go to prison for such an offence, but he would deal with his case by making a community payback order requiring him to carry out 200 hours unpaid work.
Lord Woolman said the mother of Stewart’s son had provided “a positive character reference” for him and added: “She says you have turned your life around.”
The judge pointed out that Stewart had been drugs free for the last three years and had been in full-time employment for the past 10 months and his current employer also provided a positive reference.