A drug dealer who was caught smuggling cocaine into prison was acquitted by a jury after he told them a detective supplied him with the narcotic.
The cocaine supply charge against Antonio Sabiu, 57, from Fort William, was found not proven by a majority verdict after a two week trial.
But Sabiu was jailed for two years and four months by Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist for going on the run during his first trial on the same charge on February 3 this year.
He was found unanimously guilty of failing to appear at the court for the ongoing trial.
Sabiu who has three serious drugs convictions was facing a lengthy jail sentence if he had been convicted and as he was led from court in handcuffs he said to the jury: “Thank you. God bless you.”
Sabiu had been caught allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine into Inverness Prison on February 20, 2012.
Later, he told a prison officer that he had got the drugs from a policeman and the information was passed on to Northern Constabulary who launched an investigation.
Sabiu was arrested in a Fort William guest house on February 17, 2012 by DS Baird on a charge of threatening another police officer.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart said this was probably when Sabiu hid the drugs packages by inserting them in his back passage.
Sabiu claimed DS Baird told him: “You are going back down to Shotts. (Prison) This is for Hutchie,” a reference to a known associate of Sabiu’s called Christopher Hutchison, the court was told.”
DI Baird said he didn’t know “Hutchie.”
Sabiu was not remanded to Shotts but to Inverness Prison where the drugs were found by prison officers.
Sheriff Gilchrist told Sabiu: “Your reason for your failure to appear was that criminals’ names were mentioned in court and you were frightened of them.
“That is a consequence of your choice to lead a criminal lifestyle. One reads into it that you thought you were going to be convicted. You have three pages of previous convictions stretching back 15 years and have had three appearances at Sheriff and jury level and a jail sentence is appropriate.”