A donation to his local football team resulted in a young man avoiding a fine when he was sentenced at Perth Sheriff Court.
Stewart Ramsay had pled guilty to being in possession of mephedrone at the 2010 T in the Park festival and had potentially faced a hefty fine.
However, his solicitor Cliff Culley told the court that, in a bid to demonstrate he had learned from his mistake, the 20-year-old pledged the money.
A total of £150 was given to Murieston United Community Football Club, based in Ramsay’s home town of Livingston, and it has used the cash to buy equipment.
As a result of this and a letter from the accused, who is due to begin a marketing and PR course at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, stating that the incident had made him “wake up”, Sheriff Robert McCreadie admonished him.
The court heard how Ramsay and his co-accused, Josh Quigley, had been at the Kinross-shire music festival last year on July 8. Depute fiscal John Malpass said, “At the entrance points to the actual festival site there are drugs amnesty bins.
“These are prominently marked with various warnings in relation to persons not using the bins, stating that they could be subject to search and the matter would be reported to the police.
“Both accused walked beyond the drug amnesty bins and through the search area at the event campsite entrance gate.
“A drugs dog scanning operation was being conducted at the time. At about 4.30pm, the police drugs dog gave an indication that there was a potential for drugs to be possessed in the group of people containing both the accused.”
The pair were then taken aside to be searched, along with two of their friends.
It was revealed that Quigley was in possession of 97 tablets that, following analysis, were found to be benzylpiperazine, a recreational drug with euphoric and stimulant properties. The stash had a value of £100.
Meanwhile, Ramsay had 0.869 grammes of mephedrone, with a value of £10.
Appearing on behalf of Quigley, defence agent Paul Ralph said that his client had just completed his first year of university at Napier in Edinburgh and had “taken his lesson to heart.”
Quigley, of Oakwood Park, Livingston, admitted that on July 8 last year at T in the Park, Balado, he was in possession of the controlled drug benzlypiperazine.
Ramsay, of Bankton Drive, Livingston, admitted that, on the same date and at the same location, he was in possession of class C drug methylmethcathinone, commonly known as mephedrone.
Sheriff McCreadie imposed a fine of £200 on Quigley before admonishing his co-accused. He told the pair, “You have both been warned about the serious consequences of appearing on a criminal record.
“You now have records and, for a period of time, they will stand against you. If anything else, let that be a warning to you to have nothing else to do with drugs.”