A Fife man who attempted to smuggle six packages of cocaine into T in the Park has been jailed for 27 months.
Scott Reddington had more than £500 worth of the class A drug stashed down his trousers when he was stopped by security staff.
The 29-year-old had intended to distribute the illicit substance to a group of more than 20 friends at the music festival site at Balado, by Kinross.
Sadly for him, he fell foul of the event’s zero tolerance approach to drugs, with suspicions raised from the moment of his arrival at a campsite entrance.
Reddington had no previous experience of the courts or custody, with only minor road traffic matters to trouble him before.
Despite the efforts of his solicitor, however, that lack of criminal record was not enough to persuade Sheriff Alastair Brown to stay his hand.
He said that only the early tendering of a guilty plea had prevented the prison sentence from being even longer.
Reddington who had worked as a satellite TV installer made his fateful attempt on July 7 last year, only to be stopped at a campsite entrance.
He had concealed the packages of drugs, but failed to hide a list of names and sums of money, which stewards believed correctly to be a “tick list”.
The accused was asked to submit to a police search and, though he consented, he was seen to become visibly fidgety and nervous. As he waited within a security area, staff saw him repeatedly rummaging down the front of his trousers.
He first pulled out a piece of snapped elastic cord and then two separate bags of white powder, which were later found to contain cocaine worth an estimated £510.
Reddington was seen to throw the items on to the ground, declaring to approaching officers: “You are not going to plant that on me.”
The accused, of Broomfield Road, Cowdenbeath, eventually admitted being concerned in the supply of the class A drug at the campsite entrance.
Solicitor Cliff Culley said his client’s explanation was that he had “unfortunately” agreed to buy the drugs for his friends.
“They were found on him as he was entering T in the Park and, as a result of this offence and his subsequent remand, he has lost his employment of 10 years.
“His only offending history is of minor road traffic offences and, as he has never been in prison before, his period of remand has been a hard experience for him,” Mr Culley went on.
He asked the sheriff to consider a non-custodial sentence, such as a period of community service.
“I suspect the courts will not see Mr Reddington again,” he added.
Sheriff Brown, however, signalled that the offence was simply too serious for such a sentence to be considered.
“I take into account that you have not been in this kind of trouble before and that the amount of drugs was, as far as these things go, fairly low,” he said.
“Social workers, meanwhile, suggest that you have poor decision-making skills and, while it may not have been their intention, that seems to infer that this was all something of a mistake.
“However, you took a deliberate decision to take a class A drug to supply around 20 people and tried to smuggle it into T in the Park at a time when the organisers are doing everything they can to keep drugs out of the festival.
“Contrary to what you might have thought, this kind of thing is not OK.”