Woman found guilty of permitting drug use in her home given absolute discharge

A WOMAN was found guilty of permitting someone to use heroin in her home in Oban on Monday.

Sheriff Ruth Anderson QC gave Nadina Lopez, 31, now living in Dumfries, an absolute discharge.

Oban Sheriff Court heard that on February 27 Lopez was living in a small studio flat at 25 Stevenson Street, Oban, and had opened the door of her flat within seconds of two police officers knocking and invited them in; they were conducting inquiries after a house-breaking in the area.

The first thing the officers saw was a member of her family sitting in an armchair, smoking heroin from tin foil.

‘The flat was that small it was almost impossible not to see him,’ Constable Paul McMillan said.

Lopez told the court she had been taking a shower, ‘dressed and walked out of the bathroom when she heard the knock at the door and opened it immediately’. The first she knew that her cousin was there was when she stepped out of the bathroom. She had not realised he was taking the drug, though she admitted seeing that he had drug paraphernalia about him. ‘I swore at him, because he wasn’t allowed in my flat,’ she said, adding that a friend who had just left had let him in unwittingly.

Giving Lopez an absolute discharge, Sheriff Anderson said: ‘Just be very careful of the company you keep in the future.’