A baby-faced drug dealer who set himself up as a “retailer in class A substances” at the age of just 16 was jailed today.
Lewis Raitt, now 18, set up shop selling cocaine and etizolam – a form of fake valium – while his school age cohorts were preparing for their fourth year exams.
He spent 11 months dealing in the class A and class C drugs until police were tipped off about his business, which a court was told was purely a money-making business.
Now he has been locked up for 22 months after admitting the drugs charge and a driving rap after a sheriff told him: “Sooner or later – whether it’s by drugs or driving – you are going to kill someone.”
Police raided the home he shares with his parents in the Downfield area of Dundee and found a stash of etizolam tablets worth more than £10,000 and incriminating texts on his mobile phone indicating he’d been selling cocaine in gram and half-gram deals for most of 2017.
Fiscal depute Charmaine Gilmartin told Dundee Sheriff Court: “For some time Police Scotland received intelligence to the effect that the accused was concerned in the supply of controlled drugs.
“A search warrant was executed on November 30, 2017 and the accused was found in the house.
“The house was searched and items were seized including a plastic bag containing ten bags of white tables and an iPhone box containing £340 in cash.
“The recovered tablets were confirmed to be etizolam. In total 10,315 tablets were recovered with a maximum illicit value of £10,315.
“During the search his step-father returned to the house and he voluntarily stated: ‘It’s mine, the bag and the stuff, it’s mine. It’s nothing to do with them, it’s just steroids.’
“His mobile phone was analysed and drug related texts were found that showed he was concerned in the supplying of cocaine.
“No cocaine was recovered when the police searched but the texts show he was supplying a gram of half a gram at a time.”
Raitt, 18, of Brackens Road, Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to being concerned in the supply of cocaine between January 13, 2017 and November 30, 2017 at his home address and elsewhere unknown.
He further admitted being concerned in the supply of etizolam on November 30 last year.
Raitt also pleaded guilty on summary complaint to driving dangerously and without a licence in the car park of a Wickes store in Dundee on June 15 this year.
The court was told he was spotted driving on a pavement beside the store with no lights on around 11.10pm by police on patrol nearby – and that he “accelerated harshly” to try and get away from them.
However, Raitt only succeeded in crashing into a railing and getting his car stuck between a wall and the police car.
He tried to make off – lunging across the police car’s bonnet then running – but was quickly apprehended.
Defence solicitor David Duncan said: “He is a young man who is overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation he finds himself in.
“He is haunted by the prospect of what he knows will happen to him.”
Sheriff Alastair Brown sentenced Raitt to 18 months detention for the drugs offences and a further four months for the driving charge – a total of 22 months.
He said: “If you were an adult it would have been three years.
“Sooner or later – whether it’s by drugs or driving – you are going to kill someone if you don’t change your behaviour.
“If you had been an adult I’d have sent you to detention for a good deal longer. Please get the message.”