A county lines drugs mule who was rammed off the road by police in the Carse of Gowrie has been jailed for a year.
Luke Rattigan-Woollery accelerated away from officers when they tried to pull over his vehicle near Inchture.
The 27-year-old weaved in and out of traffic, forcing pursuing officers to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
The Friday evening rush-hour chase ended when police ploughed into Rattigan-Woollery’s black BMW and forced it into a ditch.
Investigators recovered around £70,000 worth of cannabis from his vehicle.
Rattigan-Woollery, from Failworth, near Oldham, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted driving dangerously along the A90, near the B953 turn-off, on February 19 2021.
He also pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis as part of an offence linked to serious organised crime.
‘A terrible mistake’
His solicitor Pauline Cullerton said her client had handed in his notice since being convicted and is now jobless.
She added: “He’s never been in the criminal system before this.
“He got himself into a drug debt.
“Threats had been placed upon himself and his family.
“He was given the option of doing this job to pay off the drug debts.
“Quite naively and foolishly, he agreed to do that.”
In relation to the police chase, Ms Cullerton said her client “panicked.”
“He accepts his behaviour was wrong.
“He has been remorseful of his actions.
“He’s made a terrible mistake.
“He does accept it is a very serious matter.”
Sheriff Euan Duthie jailed him for a year for carrying the drugs and handed him a concurrent sentence of six months for dangerous driving.
He said: “Particularly given the amount and the value of cannabis you were caught in possession of, a custodial sentence is, in my view, necessary.
“This was a foolish and idiotic error of judgement on your part.
“I hope this is the last time we see you in this court.”
He also imposed a year-long driving ban, which will require him to sit the extended test before he takes to the road again.
Working as a mule
At a previous hearing, fiscal depute Lora Apostolova said police in Birmingham received a tip-off that a black BMW 4 Series was transporting a large amount of controlled substance to the Dundee area from Manchester.
“Several police units began searching for the vehicle on the A90 Perth to Dundee road,” she said.
Officers spotted the suspect’s car travelling east, towards Inchture, at about 5.30pm.
“A pre-emptive stop was carried out by three marked police vehicles.
“Blue lights were activated and the vehicle was instructed to stop.
“However, the car failed to stop and a police pursuit began.”
She said the BMW “accelerated aggressively” and carried out evasive manoeuvres on the carriageway, moving from the nearside to outer lane.
“This forced officers within their marked police vehicle to the offside of lane two, narrowly avoiding a collision with the central reserve,” the fiscal depute said.
“The BMW moved back into lane one, mounted the grass verge to undertake a marked police car in an attempt to make good an escape.
“At this point, the vehicle was forced into the roadside ditch by the marked police vehicles, concluding the pursuit.”
Rattigan-Woollery was taken out of the crashed car and placed in handcuffs.
He was taken to Ninewells Hospital for treatment to superficial cuts on his hands.
Drugs haul
Officers searched the boot of the car and found a vinyl bag containing seven large vacuum sealed bags of a green herbal substance.
They were confirmed to contain about seven kilos of cannabis.
Ms Apostolova said the bags had a “maximum potential illicit value” of around £70,000.
She added the two police vehicles involved in the pursuit suffered more than £4,700 worth of damage.
The court heard Rattigan-Woollery – a one-time budding actor and model – had three points on his licence but no previous convictions.
