A LIVERPOOL man who was unwittingly ensnared into the drug dealing underworld was jailed for two years at Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday.

Edward Andrew Holt (22) ended up acting as a courier for heroin with a street value of £46,000 near Dundee after his £2000 debt to a friend was transferred to a notorious drug dealer on his Croxteth housing estate.

Unable to pay his debt, he was told by the dealer that part of it would be wiped out if he took a package of drugs to Dundee and threatened that he would be shot if he did not comply, the court was told.

Holt, of Backgillmoss Lane, Croxteth, had previously admitted that on November 21, on the A90 Perth to Dundee dual carriageway, and elsewhere unknown, he was concerned in the supply of diamorphine.

Advocate Craig Thomson told the court Holt had intended to plead guilty after first appearing on petition in November, however, the indictment had been raised on the same day the plea was to be lodged.

He said Holt had never been in trouble before and had been an honest, hard-working man, a qualified gas fitter whose troubles began after he resigned from his job.

“He found it difficult to obtain another job and was too embarrassed to ask his parents for financial help,” he said.

“He sought a bank loan and borrowed £2000 from a friend.

“Unknown to him, this friend was involved in the drug scene and owed a small amount of money to a dealer.

“Also unknown to Mr Holt, he settled his loan by agreement with the drug dealer to collect the £2000 from Mr Holt and washed his hands of the matter.

“Through no fault of his own he found himself in debt to a drug dealer, despite having no involvement at all in drugs.”

Mr Thomson said his client was pursued on several occasions by the “violent, ruthless individual” and his associates through the streets and threatened with violence.

“He threatened to shoot him and set fire to his parents’ home while they were in the house,” he said.

He said Holt was unable to meet the payments and when the dealer offered him the chance to pay off part of the debt by acting as a courier, telling him he would shoot him if he chose not to, he reluctantly agreed and drove to Dundee with the drugs.

“He was arrested and found in possession of the drugs by police.”

Mr Thomson asked Sheriff Tom Hughes to consider Holt’s previous good character, his early guilty plea, good background report, remorse and his desperate circumstances could allow him to show a degree of leniency not normally appropriate.

Sheriff Hughes told Holt, “Although these were very difficult circumstances, you are no different from other people who find themselves in dire financial straits.

“Custody is the only appropriate way of dealing with this, however I take into account all the factors.

“I am dealing with this as if the section 76 notice had been lodged and as a result while the sentence would have been one of three years’ imprisonment, given the circumstances it will be reduced to two years in jail.”