A Perth joinery boss has been jailed for ten months after admitting dealing drugs from a city “party flat”.
Police raided Lee Marshall’s home last year and found the 23-year-old surrounded by illegal substances.
They included 20 grammes of cocaine worth almost £1,200 – already split into small street deal bags – and £900 of ecstasy tablets.
Perth Sheriff Court heard Marshall had spiralled into personal drug addiction but had also been selling to others.
His home had become a “party flat” for a network of friends who were similarly involved in drug use, though the coming and going is understood to have led to the police being tipped off.
They arrived with a search warrant in August but required to do little searching to uncover Marshall’s role in the trade.
Appearing in the dock at court, he attempted to persuade Sheriff Lindsay Foulis to spare him a prison sentence, claiming he had left drugs behind.
The sheriff was unmoved, however, given the quantity of class A drugs found and the accused’s previous criminal record.
In 2013, he was jailed for seven months after admitting carrying out a serious assault at The Loft nightclub in Perth.
Depute fiscal Tina Dickie said: “Police officers found Mr Marshall in the living room with a number of clear bags containing white powder.
“He told them that there was “more stuff in that bag”, pointing to to a Tesco carrier bag sitting on the couch.
“Officers recovered 17 bags of white powder from it and also found snap bags, cards with traces of white powder and the ecstasy tablets.”
Officers also seized and “interrogated” his telephone but found little on it to link him to the drug trade.
As a result Marshall, of Kinnoull Street, admitted being concerned in the supply of the class A drugs cocaine and ecstasy on a single day, August 12 2016.
Solicitor Jamie Baxter said it had taken the involvement of the police to snap his client free of drug use.
“He realised he was heading down a slippery slope but this brought him back to reality,” the agent said.
“Since that day he has managed to come off the habit and is no longer part of that scene. He has also left behind that peer group.
“He has been able to return to his joinery business, where he now has five people working for him.”
Mr Baxter asked the court to defer sentence upon his client to consider alternatives to custody.
Sheriff Foulis replied that custody was the only option, saying: “I do not need to call for reports.
“This was a significant quantity of cocaine and ecstasy tablets and it is clear the drugs were there for the purpose of supply.”
