A convicted drug dealer has been handed unpaid work after buying £5,000 of cocaine – that turned out to be paracetamol.
Stephen Burnside, a 40-year-old father of three of Esk Road, Inverness was ordered to carry out 227 hours and 15 minutes of unpaid community work by Sheriff Margaret Neilson.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard he had 72 hours and 45 minutes still to complete on a current order. The maximum total she can impose is 300 hours hence the odd figure.
At an earlier hearing when the sentence was deferred for a background report, the court was told that Burnside had driven to Perth with another man to collect the drugs on July 20, 2019.
But fiscal depute Robert Weir told Sheriff Neilson that police already had intelligence about the proposed transaction and had placed them under surveillance as part of a pre-planned undercover task force – “Operation Reliance”.
Offence branded ‘amateurish’
Officers saw Burnside drive into a retail park in Perth to be met by a third man and moved in to see the accused examining the package which he said was cocaine.
Mr Weir revealed the powder was actually paracetamol and Burnside later told detectives £5,000 had been paid and that he thought he had been “ripped off”.
‘He knew what he was getting into’
Burnside admitted being concerned in the supply of what he believed to be cocaine.
His defence solicitor advocate Clare Russell appealed to the sheriff not to impose a custodial sentence, labelling the offence as “amateurish”.
She added: “He has grown up in a lifestyle of drug misuse but has now turned a corner in this respect. He is aware that with his 2017 conviction, prison is uppermost in the court’s mind.
“But since this offence in 2019, he has steered himself away from offending and done his best to turn his life around.”
Sheriff Neilson commented: “He was duped by someone else who was concerned in the supply of drugs. But he knew what he was getting into and because he ended up with paracetamol doesn’t mean he is not culpable.”
