T in the Park drugs conviction means return from Oz

A drugs conviction handed out at Perth Sheriff Court means a Scottish man will have to return home after finding employment in Australia.

The court had heard how Duncan Purves, 22, of Colinton Mains Crescent, Edinburgh, had been found with the class A drug ecstasy at the T in the Park music festival on July 13 last year. He pleaded guilty to the charge by contacting his solicitor via email.

Emma Todd, defending, asked Sheriff Mark Stewart to grant her client an absolute discharge on the grounds that a criminal conviction would mean he would not be allowed to remain in Australia.

“My client left to find work in Australia around three weeks after this incident,” she said.

“His working visa will soon run out but his employer wishes to keep him and wants to sponsor him for three-and-a-half years. This will cost a significant amount of money.”

However, Sheriff Stewart said while he had “sympathy” with Purves’s “difficulties” as he had found a job and a new life in Australia, he could not “single him out” by quashing the conviction.

He fined Purves £170.