Legged it with drugs

Tried to throw cocaine inTay

A Perth man legged it, along with a holdall full of drugs he had taken from his car, after he was challenged by police on a local housing estate.

The bag contained cocaine worth hundreds of pounds which 40-year-old Alan Williamson tried to dispose of in the nearby River Tay and woods close to the North Muirton housing estate.

The accused, of Glenshee Crescent, was spared a prison sentence, despite a “serious analogous conviction,” when he appeared at Perth Sheriff Court. Instead, he was ordered to complete 270 hours of unpaid work over the next 12 months.

He admitted obstructing two police officers in Perth’s Bute Drive on April 2, 2016, as they exercised their powers under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The charge indicated that after removing the holdall from his vehicle, he ran away through various streets on the estate with bags containing controlled drugs.

He then attempted to dispose of them in the river and in the woods.

Williamson also pled guilty to an amended second charge of having cocaine in his possession.

He had initially been accused of having the Class A drug with intent to supply it to others.

Depute fiscal Robbie Brown said the 25.3 grammes of cocaine recovered was valued at between £1200 and £2500.

Solicitor Pauline Cullerton said her client had described his actions as “stupid.”

He accepted his responsibility and she revealed he had a previous drug conviction in 1995 which had attracted a community payback order a direct alternative to prison.

She added: “He’s aware that custody is an option open to the court, given the nature of the offence, but there is an alternative.”

A joiner to trade, there had been “significant incidents in his life” which had impacted on him, the most recent relating to his mother which had caused him “some concern and distress.”

Sheriff Gillian Wade told him: “A custodial sentence was certainly at the forefront of my mind.”

But after reading a background report which detailed the circumstances the accused found himself in, she was willing to impose unpaid work, but it would have to be “significant.”

She noted the charge had been amended to one of possession, which reduced its seriousness.

If that hadn’t happened, there was “no doubt “in her mind he would have received a custodial sentence.