A drug user who threw away heroin and cocaine worth up to £60,000 on the streets as he tried to flee from police in the Highlands was jailed for 32 months today.
Officers received information that David Mitchell was in possession of a carrier bag containing drugs on May 1 last year.
When police went to Chestnut Road in the Highland town of Dingwall they spotted him with a bag.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that when Mitchell (28) saw the police vehicle approaching he ran off into Maggie’s Wood.
Advocate depute Richard Goddard said: “Once within the wooded area the accused attempted to throw the carrier bag away into the undergrowth.”
“The accused was stopped by the officers and asked why he was running. He replied that the carrier bag contained cocaine,” said the prosecutor.
Mitchell, of Neil Gunn Place, Dingwall, was detained and admitted that he had heroin on him and that the bag he had thrown away contained cocaine, heroin and cannabis.
He was searched and found to have a small amount of heroin in a breast pocket and a larger quantity of the Class A drug hidden in a sock.
The bag he had discarded was recovered and found to contain a block of heroin, a block of cocaine and two bags containing cannabis resin.
Mr Goddard said the heroin found had the potential to be worth pounds 45,300 if divided up into tenner deals. The cocaine could realise pounds 15,550 if broken down into gram quantities and the cannabis was worth up to pounds 1100.
Unemployed Mitchell earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin, cocaine and cannabis on May 1 last year at Maggie’s Wood, Dingwall.
A judge told he would have faced a four-year prison sentence but for his guilty plea in the case.
Lady Wolffe said: “The abuse of drugs is a ruinous blight on the lives of many.”
“It is accepted on your behalf that your offending behaviour must be marked by a custodial sentence. I am satisfied there is no alternative to a custodial sentence,” she said.
The judge said she took into account the relatively unsophisticated and limited character of the offence.
Lady Wolffe said she had been told that Mitchell has resolved to change his ways and that the offence occurred at a point in his life when he was particularly vulnerable because of heroin addiction.
The court heard it had acted as “a wake up call” for Mitchell who voluntarily sought help with his drug problem.
The court was told that Mitchell was moving drugs from one part of town to another and understood he would be allowed to keep some.