Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Jail for £70k drug mule who caused thousands of pounds of damage during Perthshire police chase

Luke Rattigan-Woolery
Luke Rattigan-Woolery

A county lines drugs mule who was rammed off the road by police in the Carse of Gowrie has been jailed for a year.

Luke Rattigan-Woollery accelerated away from officers when they tried to pull over his vehicle near Inchture.

The 27-year-old weaved in and out of traffic, forcing pursuing officers to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

The Friday evening rush-hour chase ended when police ploughed into Rattigan-Woollery’s black BMW and forced it into a ditch.

Investigators recovered around £70,000 worth of cannabis from his vehicle.

Rattigan-Woollery, from Failworth, near Oldham, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted driving dangerously along the A90, near the B953 turn-off, on February 19 2021.

He also pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis as part of an offence linked to serious organised crime.

‘A terrible mistake’

His solicitor Pauline Cullerton said her client had handed in his notice since being convicted and is now jobless.

She added: “He’s never been in the criminal system before this.

“He got himself into a drug debt.

“Threats had been placed upon himself and his family.

“He was given the option of doing this job to pay off the drug debts.

“Quite naively and foolishly, he agreed to do that.”

In relation to the police chase, Ms Cullerton said her client “panicked.”

“He accepts his behaviour was wrong.

“He has been remorseful of his actions.

“He’s made a terrible mistake.

“He does accept it is a very serious matter.”

Sheriff Euan Duthie jailed him for a year for carrying the drugs and handed him a concurrent sentence of six months for dangerous driving.

He said: “Particularly given the amount and the value of cannabis you were caught in possession of, a custodial sentence is, in my view, necessary.

“This was a foolish and idiotic error of judgement on your part.

“I hope this is the last time we see you in this court.”

He also imposed a year-long driving ban, which will require him to sit the extended test before he takes to the road again.

Working as a mule

At a previous hearing, fiscal depute Lora Apostolova said police in Birmingham received a tip-off that a black BMW 4 Series was transporting a large amount of controlled substance to the Dundee area from Manchester.

“Several police units began searching for the vehicle on the A90 Perth to Dundee road,” she said.

Officers spotted the suspect’s car travelling east, towards Inchture, at about 5.30pm.

“A pre-emptive stop was carried out by three marked police vehicles.

“Blue lights were activated and the vehicle was instructed to stop.

“However, the car failed to stop and a police pursuit began.”

She said the BMW “accelerated aggressively” and carried out evasive manoeuvres on the carriageway, moving from the nearside to outer lane.

“This forced officers within their marked police vehicle to the offside of lane two, narrowly avoiding a collision with the central reserve,” the fiscal depute said.

“The BMW moved back into lane one, mounted the grass verge to undertake a marked police car in an attempt to make good an escape.

“At this point, the vehicle was forced into the roadside ditch by the marked police vehicles, concluding the pursuit.”

Rattigan-Woollery was taken out of the crashed car and placed in handcuffs.

He was taken to Ninewells Hospital for treatment to superficial cuts on his hands.

Drugs haul

Officers searched the boot of the car and found a vinyl bag containing seven large vacuum sealed bags of a green herbal substance.

They were confirmed to contain about seven kilos of cannabis.

Ms Apostolova said the bags had a “maximum potential illicit value” of around £70,000.

She added the two police vehicles involved in the pursuit suffered more than £4,700 worth of damage.

The court heard Rattigan-Woollery – a one-time budding actor and model – had three points on his licence but no previous convictions.