A case against a woman alleged to have supplied and possessed drugs was thrown out of court — after police failed to provide relevant papers to bring a prosecution.
Tracey Mudie, 36, pleaded not guilty to two charges and was due to face trial.
She was accused of supplying cannabis resin, cannabis and diazepam at her home in Charleston on January 4.
Mudie was also alleged to have been in possession of heroin on the same date after police conducted a search of the property.
Mudie went on to appear three times at Dundee Sheriff Court before a sheriff lost patience with the police and threw the case out, after officers failed to bring forward a report on drugs they had allegedly seized.
Solicitor Keith Sym, from Bruce and Co, was representing Mudie in court and he claimed police had been given “more than enough time” to compile the report.
He said: “What happened in this case was the police never submitted a ‘STOP’ report.
“When there’s allegations that someone has supplied drugs, they have to state what the drugs were, why they think were being supplied, why they think the accused was involved and other aspects of why they’ve brought the case.
“All these details are supposed to be put in the report.
“They’ve had more than enough time to put together the report as the trial has called three times over 10 months and they’ve not got round to doing it. Now she cannot be prosecuted ever for these charges.”
Mr Sym said this sort of problem was not an unusual occurrence, and when asked if he thought the delays may be due to staffing pressures at the police, he said: “Probably — this is not an uncommon thing to happen, although 10 months is the longest I’ve ever experienced.
“Sometimes I think that once police put the case to the procurator fiscal that’s the end of it. Someone in the police is not pursuing it anyway.”
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said the content of STOP reports relies on information drawn from a number of different sources and can take some time to produce.
She added: “We will look into the circumstances of this particular case to identify any reasons for late submission and any wider process issues.”
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