Drug dealer who provided ‘safe house’ jailed for nine months

A man has been jailed for being involved in drug dealing in St Andrews.

Stewart Cowan was told that people like him who provided a “safe house” for dealing made life easier for those at the top of the drugs tree.

Cowan, 29, of Mars Garden, Wormit, had previously admitted that on February 23 2013, at a house in Freddie Tait Street, St Andrews, he was in possession of a controlled drug, cocaine, with intent to supply.

He also admitted that between February 2 2013 and September 26 2013, at a house in Auchterlonie Court, St Andrews, he was concerned in the supply of a controlled drug, cannabis resin.

At Dunfermline Sheriff Court, Sheriff Charles Macnair jailed him for nine months.

The sheriff said: “The first charge involves the possession of a class ‘A’ drug with the intention to supply.

“According to you, this was a safe house to repay a debt, in other words for financial gain.

“Drug dealers further up the food chain will of course want to distance themselves from the drugs and for that reason and they rely on people to act as a holder of their drugs.

“If people were not prepared to do that, life for those further up the food chain would be made much more difficult.”

The sheriff said the amount of cocaine was “significant”.

He said in the case of the cannabis resin offence, that was something that was carried out over a period of more than six months.

The sheriff said that in the circumstances he was forced to the conclusion that only a custodial sentence would be suitable.