Drugs user, turned dealer, jailed for two years

A 35-year-old Liverpool drug dealer was jailed for two years yesterday after being caught in a police surveillance operation in Inverness and Elgin.

Inverness Sheriff Court heard yesterday that Graham Ball’s story of how be became involved in the illegal drugs trade was “a familiar one”.

Defence solicitor Neil Wilson told Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood: “He was a drug user and ran up considerable debts.

“He was then presented with unpalatable options for them to be resolved. But he got involved of his own free will and knows what to expect.

“This has been a wake-up call for him and he does not wish to get involved in the trade again. He has been drugs-free for months now.”

At an earlier hearing, the court was told that police officers kept watch on the activities of Ball and his former co-accused, Laura Beckwith, during April and May last year.

The court heard they were part of a Liverpudlian organised crime group who recruited people in the Highlands to sell their drugs.

Beckwith directed the associates and Ball was embedded in the area to work with them as deliveries and sales were made.

She was jailed for a year at Inverness last July for her part in the drugs supply chain.

Ball, of Bellmont Drive, admitted being concerned in the supply of 136 grams of heroin and had sentence deferred on April 3 for a background report.

The court was told police observed Ball hide a bag containing £2,000 of heroin in woodland near Birchwood Road in Elgin on April 25, 2016.

Surveillance of him and his associates continued and on May 10 2016 he was picked up from Inverness railway station and taken to an address in the city.

Ball was then driven to Fairfield Road where he walked to the Caledonian Canal footpath.

Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart said he returned to the vehicle which was stopped and searched.

Scales, a mobile phone, and heroin worth £11,600 were eventually recovered, he added.

“He has been drugs-free for months now”