A drug-dealing Angus granny who sold amphetamine to feed her own habit has been jailed for four months.
Joan Taylor’s solicitor told Forfar sheriff court the 42-year-old was “terrified” by the prospect of going to prison, but after being caught with over £1,000 of the Class B drug and against a background of previous offending the accused was told there was no other option.
Taylor, of the town’s Strathmore Avenue previously admitted a charge of supplying amphetamine in April 2015.
Defence solicitor Nick Markowski said that police reports had put a maximum value of the drugs at £1,070, but the ‘as seen’ worth was under £350.
“She is not someone who has had a particularly happy life,” he said.
“At the time of this offence she was in a relationship with drug addiction difficulties with someone who is well known to this court and was regularly appearing on domestic assault matters in relation to her.
“Amphetamine addiction is something that has had a bigger effect on her than others,” added Mr Markowski.
“She is candid in the social work report about her difficulties and it terrified at the prospect of imprisonment.
“At the time of the offence she would probably use around 50% to 60% of the drug herself.
“She wasn’t introducing other people to the drug, she was selling it to friends within her social circle.
“I appreciate she is the author of her own misfortune, but she does not have a significant record and has been referred to drug addiction services to try and deal with her problems.”
He said the accused had also spent the last fortnight preparing her family for the prospect that she might be going to Cornton Vale and that had caused a great deal of anxiety.
Sheriff Gregor Murray told Taylor: “In 2011 you pled guilty to a similar offence and were placed on a community service order.
“That didn’t stop you offending.
“Some time just before this offence you were caught offending again.
“What worries me even more it that you haven’t done anything to stop using it. We are 18 months on from this offence and those are the circumstances that prey most on my mind.
“In all the circumstances there can be no alternative to a custodial sentence,” said the sheriff.
