Oban drug dealer is jailed to protect members of the public
An Oban man who admitted offences including supplying drugs and taking back stolen gardening tools for a reward has been sent to jail.
Daniel Guy, 45, pleaded guilty in December to theft by housebreaking charges, one charge of reset and one of being involved in supplying heroin.
This week he re-appeared at Oban Sheriff Court from remand for reports and sentencing and was ordered to serve a total of 28 months behind bars, backdated to October 17, 2019.
Sheriff Patrick Hughes said Guy was being kept in prison so the public could be protected. ‘These matters before court are of enormous concern: the targeting of commercial and domestic properties and the selling of the most dangerous and addictive drugs.
‘The public has to be protected,’ he said.
Sheriff Hughes also said Guy’s sentence should be a deterrent to others.
The court heard Guy now appeared to be ‘drug free’ in prison and expressed remorse, especially at exhausting the goodwill of his mother, which was something that weighed ‘heavily in his heart’ and he intended to sort out as soon as he could.
A West Bay flat and Oban Fish and Chip Shop in George Street were two of the properties broken into by Guy on June 20 and July 6 last year respectively.
Staff at the chip shop had opened up to find a trail of coins leading from the store to the rear of the property, with one of the tills unaccounted for and a cash drawer gone from the other and £300 missing.
On March 16 last year, police raided a house in Quarry Road after smelling cannabis strongly while conducting door-to-door inquiries for a separate matter.
Nine plastic wraps containing heroin belonging to Guy were found as well as a tick list with names and numbers and £380 in cash.
He candidly told police he was selling the ‘deals’ for £40 and was using the money from the sales to fund his own addiction.
Guy also took garden tools he knew to have been stolen back to West Coast Tool and Plant Hire, where they went missing from, and claimed a £300 reward.