A 23-year-old Liverpool man described by a sheriff as a “serial drug dealer” was jailed for three years yesterday after admitting supplying heroin in the Highlands.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson also told Jack Hartley at Inverness Sheriff Court: “You have a shocking record for someone of your age.”
The court was told that Hartley had moved to Inverness shortly after being released from a 45-month jail sentence in England for a similar offence.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart said: “Acting on information received, on the afternoon of Saturday, June 17, police constables executed a search warrant at a house at Craigton Avenue, Inverness.
“Hartley, who was not the householder and who later gave a Liverpool address, was found hiding under clothes in a bedroom.
“£420 in cash was found in the pocket of his jogging bottoms and a further £250 was recovered from his shorts.
“Near where he had been hiding a bag containing six visually similar knotted bags of brown powder was recovered. On analysis these were confirmed to contain diamorphine. Three of the six were weighed and found to be 1.59, 1.51 and 1.63 grammes. A back of an envelope calculation would suggest an “as seen” value of about £360 and a maximum value of £942.”
Mr Urquhart added that three mobile telephones were also recovered. One was examined and it was found to contain a record of 24 texts all sent or received between about 10.50am and 1.25pm that day and “eloquent of” drug dealing.