A TEENAGER has been sent to a detention centre for six months today, for dealing in drugs.
Tain Sheriff Court heard that Dean Sutherland (18) of Mansfield Estate, Tain, had supplied cannabis to a woman and diazepam to a man last year.
Sentence had been deferred at a previous hearing for criminal justice social work reports.
Sutherland had admitted supplying cannabis to the woman between July 1 and September 30 and supplying diazepam tablets to the man between September 1 and September 30.
Depute Fiscal Stewart Maciver told Sheriff David Sutherland police obtained a search warrant of Sutherland’s home and checks on mobile phones led them to the parties he had been supplying the drugs to.
He said the man had been supplied with 10 to 15 tablets on two occasions and the woman with an eighth of an ounce of cannabis on eight occasions.
Solicitor David Hingston told Sheriff David Sutherland: “These are people he has not inveigled into drug use as they are people older than him who were aware of his drug use. He has not tried to supply drugs to younger people.”
The solicitor said Sutherland recognised these were serious matters but he was no longer using drugs or alcohol and asked for a community based sentence rather than custody.
But Sheriff Sutherland said: “The court has said on many occasions that the supply of drugs will not be tolerated and I do not consider it appropriate to dispose of such cases with anything other than a custodial sentence.”
He ordered Sutherland to be detained for six months on each charge, the sentences to run concurrently.
