A Perth joiner who was caught with £30,000 worth of cocaine hidden inside a cooker during a raid on his business has been jailed for three years.
John Duncan, 35, had wrapped up nearly half a kilo of the Class A drug in a towel and concealed it inside the oven.
Fiscal depute Michael Sweeney told Perth Sheriff Court: “The accused is a self-employed joiner.
“A search warrant was obtained for his home and his workplace.”
Mr Sweeney said a large quantity of cocaine was found wrapped inside a towel and hidden in a disused cooker at the industrial unit where his business was operating from.
Duncan, of Young Street, Perth, admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine from his home and his industrial unit in Ruthvenfield on September 25, 2020.
‘Good upbringing’
Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said: “He has a good family upbringing and is someone who works as a time-served joiner.
“His arrest in this matter has caused him to reflect very much on the way he has been behaving and to take steps to change direction.
“He stated that he had been running up a debt because he had been using cocaine.
“Those he ran the debt up with had been pressing him to satisfy the debt.
“He was part of this process.
“He now realises that the friends he knew before he took cocaine were his true friends.
“He has accepted responsibility for his choices.”
Sheriff Euan Duthie said: “You recognise that a custodial sentence is pretty much inevitable, and that realisation is accurate.
“Given the seriousness of the offence and the value of the drugs you were found with, I am satisfied a custodial sentence is necessary.”
