Junkie dealer caught at bus station jailed

Police found him with £1480 worth of heroin

A heroin dealer caught outside Stirling bus station with the class-A drug and 33 diazepam tablets was last week sentenced to eight months’imprisonment.

Ross McLay, of Kirkbride Terrace, Plean, admitted a charge of possession with intent to supply heroin at the Goosecroft Road bus station on December 18 and charge of possessing diazepam there.

The fiscal depute told Stirling Sheriff Court last Friday that police had received a call from security staff at Stirling bus station about a male there under the influence of drink or drugs and unable to stand.

The 37-year-old was staggering and stumbling towards a busy road.

When officers arrived they found McLay hanging onto a set of railings “clearly under the influence of some form of substance.”

Concerned about his wellbeing, they asked him if he had taken heroin. McLay nodded and told them ‘just one bag.’

An ambulance was called and McLay was searched while they waited. A bag of powder was discovered, which was later found to be 14.8g of heroin with a street value of £1480.

He was also found to have a mobile phone, 30 blue tablets, and three loose tablets.

Analysis showed that the tablets, with a street value of £33, were diazepam.

There were messages on the mobile phone from someone called ‘Jay’ which the fiscal depute said, clearly showed he intended to supply heroin to this person – who had made reference to the drug’s street name ‘brown.’

McLay’s agent told Sheriff William Gilchrist at Stirling Sheriff Court on Friday that his client had been sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment at the High Court in August 2015. This sentence had been backdated to December 2014 because he had been on remand for eight months. He had been released from custody in December last year and the offences before the court occurred shortly afterwards, the lawyer pointed out.

While in Glenochil Prison McLay was quickly recognised as having a heroin addiction and placed on a withdrawal programme. He served most of the term in Glenochil, but was transferred to Castle Huntly open prison where he received treatement and counselling for his addiction. However, six weeks before he was due to be released he was sent back to Glenochil where all methadone treatment stopped.

McLay, the solicitor pointed out, then “took advantage of illicit drugs with the prison system and heroin in particular.”

When he was released from prison “people” were looking for payment for the drugs McLay had used while inside.

However, he had “difficulties acquiring benefits” and was given heroin to sell to recover the drug debts.

Sheriff Gilchrist asked the lawyer why McLay’s methadone had been stopped. McLay did not know, the agent said, but a complaint had been made to the prison “or the NHS at any rate.”

McLay was appearing from custody as his licence had been recalled.

The lawyer asked Sheriff Gilchrist to take account of McLay tendering a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity.

Sheriff Gilchrist told McLay that supplying heroin with intent to supply was a very serious offence, adding: “Heroin causes horrendous problems for society and individuals – and no doubt for you as well.”

He sentenced McLay to eight months’ imprisonment consecutive to the sentence he was currently serving.