A gangster has been handed extra jail time after he tried to carry out organised crime from inside prison.
Keith Whyte, 34, appeared via videolink at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted attempting to orchestrate the use of almost £12,000 in cash for nefarious purposes.
Text messages between Whyte and two other people show he acted as the gang leader and ordered a female contact to hand over the money to another man.
But the cash was intercepted by police as Whyte’s contact attempted to leave the north-east in a car.
It is unclear what Whyte – who was jailed in 2014 after being caught with £679,000 worth of cocaine – wanted the money to be used for.
Prisoner had phone and sim
Fiscal depute Rebecca Thompson told the court that a police operation – named Operation Sloth – was set up to investigate the activities of organised crime groups (OCGs) in Aberdeen.
Whyte was identified as a “significant member” of an OCG as part of Operation Sloth.
At the time of this offence, Whyte was a prisoner of HMP Addiwell, where police had found intelligence concerning his involvement in organised crime while inside the prison.
It was established that Whyte had access to a mobile phone and a sim card and had been using it to message a female contact of his.
She was also documented as visiting him on May 9 2023 and June 1 2023.
Another male contact had also been in contact with Whyte and was identified as a drug and cash courier based in Fife.
On June 28 2023, police received intelligence that a vehicle had travelled to Aberdeen from Fife that had either conveyed drugs or cash.
They stopped the car later that day as it left Aberdeen and found £11,910 in cash in an envelope underneath the passenger seat.
The driver claimed that the cash was his “life savings” and that he had planned to buy a car with it in Aberdeen.
The man’s mobile phone was examined and found to contain messages that showed Whyte orchestrated the transfer of the £11,910 between his female and male contact, who were unknown to each other prior to this.
Police then obtained CCTV that showed the woman had over an envelope to the male in an Aberdeen city centre car park during her lunch break from work.
Appearing in court via video, Whyte pleaded guilty to committing an offence connected to organised crime by directing the transfer and acquisition of criminal property.
Prison term ‘entirely meritable’
Defence solicitor Ross Dow told the court that his client accepts that he was involved in the transfer of the cash but said that it was in relation to a debt that Whyte had accrued upon his imprisonment for a previous offence.
“He was immediately put under pressure to pay the debt,” the solicitor said.
“Mr Whyte accepted that, on this occasion, that a custodial sentence is entirely meritable.”
Mr Dow added that since this incident came to light, Whyte had been subjected to regular searches of his cell which had come up clean.
Sheriff David Hall told Whyte: “You clearly understand this is a serious matter as you pled guilty at the earliest opportunity.”
He jailed Whyte, whose address was given as HMP Addiewell, for 18 months, consecutive to his current sentence.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.