Inverness dealer duped in £5000 cocaine deal court hears

A CONVICTED drug dealer who was “ripped off” after £5000 had been paid for virtually worthless paracetamol he thought was cocaine was spared a jail sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court.

Stephen Burnside (40), of Esk Road, Inverness was ordered to carry out 227 hours and 15 minutes of unpaid community work by Sheriff Margaret Neilson who had been told 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 figure.

At an earlier hearing when 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 planned police undercover task force with the title Operation Reliance.

Officers saw Burnside drive into a retail park in Perth to be met by a third man and officers moved in to see Burnside examining the package which he said was cocaine.

Mr Weir revealed the powder was actually paracetamol and Burnside later told detectives £5000 had been paid and that he thought he had been “ripped off”.

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 said: “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.”