Drug addict ‘motivated’ to address his issues, Inverness Sheriff Court hears
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AN Inverness man was given the chance of beating his drug addiction rather than going to jail when he appeared for sentencing after breaking into a house in his search for narcotics.
Craig Cornish, of Telford Street, Inverness was placed on an 18-month drug treatment and testing order at Inverness Sheriff Court after he previously admitted a charge of house-breaking with intent to steal from the property in the same street as he now lives.
The offence was committed on November 29, 2018 and sentence was deferred on the 37-year-old at an earlier hearing for a background report .
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank was told by defence solicitor Marc Dickson that his client had become addicted to cocaine and opiates.
The lawyer told the court: “He has been fighting drug addictions for the past 15 years. But he is motivated to address his issues because his partner is pregnant with his fourth child.
“He really went to the property to source drugs while disinhibited by drugs. It was not a cleverly planned escapade and carried out with not a lot of guile. It was a pretty rudimentary break-in.”
Fiscal depute Martina Eastwood told the court that Cornish cut himself as he put his hand through a hole in the door to open it.
“The occupant heard someone in his kitchen and chased the intruder briefly. Police were called. DNA from the blood found matched Cornish.”
Cornish will be regularly tested for drugs with eight samples taken every month. He was warned that the order was an alternative to a prison sentence.
