Man who was caught with drugs in car on A90 has jail term cut

A man was forced into transporting narcotics after he could not repay a loan he took out from drug dealers to pay for a friend’s funeral, a court has heard.

Liam O’Grady, 31, appeared “nervous” when he was pulled over by police in December 2019 on the A90 Perth to Dundee road.

Officers found him carrying cocaine and heroin potentially worth more than £40,000 and he was arrested and eventually given a four-and-a-half-year jail term.

Yesterday, defence advocate Wendy Hay told the Court of Criminal Appeal that O’Grady had became involved in the drugs trade because of his personal circumstances.

Ms Hay said: “He had became involved after he accumulated a significant debt in relation to a funeral for a friend.

“The repayments became problematic. He borrowed the money from the wrong people and he struggled to pay it back.”

O’Grady, of Nottingham, pled guilty to being involved in the supply of drugs at Perth Sheriff Court in March this year.

Sheriff William Wood heard how police detained O’Grady on December 18 2019.

The court heard that O’Grady had stopped off in Liverpool and collected a backpack containing the illicit powders before driving north to Scotland.

Prosecution lawyer Eilidh Robertson said traffic police were on duty that evening during torrential rain.

They decided to stop O’Grady’s car because of an issue with its lights.

Officers concluded that O’Grady was carrying drugs because of his nervous demeanour and found the substances.

Yesterday, Ms Hay told judges Lord Turnbull and Lord Woolman that the sentence imposed on her client was excessive.

She added: “He very much regrets the extremely poor choice he made in relation to how he dealt with the debt.”

The judges agreed to reduce the sentence to 40 months.