Fort man in court over £1,470 in unpaid fines

A Fort William man who had £1,470 in outstanding unpaid fines, appeared at the town’s sheriff court last week.

Sean Thomas McCuish, 27, appeared from custody last Thursday and as well as dealing with the matter of the outstanding fines, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald also dealt with two drugs offences.

McCuish had pleaded guilty to possession of Mephedrone and ecstasy at his home in Wallace Place on February 18 of last year.

His pleas of not guilty to possessing quantities of Psilocin, cannabis and cannabis resin on the same day were accepted by the Crown.

Procurator Fiscal Robert Weir told the court that it was around 8.50pm on the night of February 18 last year when police officers forced entry to McCuish’s home.

The officers had a search warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) and during the search recovered a small amount of Mephedrone – about 1g – with a street value of between £30 to £50, plus three yellow Ecstasy tablets worth about £15.

Defence agent Hamish Melrose told the court in mitigation that McCuish had returned to work for his father’s diving business near Inverness and as a result was able to pay any monetary penalties at the rate of £100 per month.

Sentencing McCuish, Sheriff MacDonald told him he had continuously refused to co-operate with orders from the court by failing to pay fines and do unpaid work in the community.

She fined McCuish £100 on each of the two drugs offences and on the breach of the Community Payback Order, she revoked the order and imposed a £250 fine instead.

And she warned McCuish: ‘Miss any one of these monthly payments and you will be going to prison.’