Drug dealer jailed after Aberuthven arrest

Feb 9 2010 by Alison Lowson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

POLICE, acting on a tip-off, stopped a car on the A9, near Aberuthven, and discovered two bags of heroin with a street value of over £5000.

And the Class A drug was 63 per cent. pure – almost double the strength of normal street deals.

The seizure led to 33-year-old Timothy Richard Morgan being jailed for 21 months at Perth Sheriff Court yesterday.

He pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin on the Stirling-Perth road on April 6 last year.

Depute fiscal Stewart Richardson said that police became aware that he was going to Glasgow and it was though he was going to purchase drugs there.

His car was stopped at the Aberuthven Junction and a search revealed the two bags.

One contained 27.85 grammes of heroin and the other 27.72 grammes.

The average purity of drugs recovered in 2008 was 32.9 per cent. but this was 63 per cent.

“There was certainly scope for these drugs to be further adulterated and brought down to a lower level of purity,” he added.

If the heroin was broken down to the smallest bags sold on the streets, the illicit value would total an estimated £5500.

A solicitor for the accused, of Broughty Ferry, said he had become involved in drugs and his life had taken a “downward spiral.”

He was now addressing his drug problem, however, and had sought help.

The lawyer pointed out that he was at “low risk” of re-offending and asked that community service be considered.

But Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: “Whilst I take account of the steps you have taken in an attempt to turn round your life – and may well have significantly turned it around – I simply can’t focus on you as an individual.

“I have to look at the wider public interest – and the public generally – and in all the circumstances I consider a custodial sentence is inevitable.”

The Crown had previously indicated they were pursuing a Proceeds of Crime action to seize some of Morgan’s cash, believed to have been obtained through his drug dealing.

But Mr Richardson told the court yesterday that was being withdrawn.