A gangster serving time for drugs offences used mobile phones to “direct” his partner to sell narcotics for his “financial gain”.
Jason Lindsay, 46, communicated illicitly with Stephanie McGowan, 25, while serving a six-year term for drug dealing at Castle Huntly, near Dundee.
Lindsay sent messages to his partner McGowan, who was staying at a house in Stronsay Drive, Aberdeen.
The former welder got McGowan involved in selling etizolam to people outside jail in May 2021.
Another woman, 24-year-old Jodie Marie McVeigh, from Dundee, also became involved in supplying the “street Valium”, in May 2021.
The trio were caught after police became aware of how Lindsay was using smuggled mobiles behind bars and the three were communicating about selling drugs.
All pled guilty to being concerned in supplying etizolam.
McGowan also pleaded guilty to being concerned in supplying cocaine.
Lindsay, currently a prisoner of HMP Perth, admitted charges of having the illicit mobile phone and sending and receiving messages from his co-accused.
Police raids
Prosecutor Tracey Brown said investigators linked phone numbers being used by the two women to Lindsay, inside the open prison estate between Perth and Dundee.
Messages passed between May 13 and 19 2021 related to the supply of 5,000 unspecified tablets to the user of another mobile telephone.”
Lord Weir heard how police raided McGowan’s home on May 20 2021.
Officers found cocaine with a potential maximum street value of £2,800, digital scales with traces of the class A substance and more than £26,000 in cash.
McGowan told police some of the cash came from an inheritance but the court heard she has been unable to provide evidence of this.
Detectives meanwhile raided McVeigh’s house in Catterline Crescent, Dundee and found a small number of etizolam tablets with her DNA on them.
Sentencing
Lindsay’s solicitor advocate Kris Gilmartin said: “It is acknowledged that he was involved in the supply of drugs for financial gain.
“It is acknowledged that he directed the other accused and he used mobile phones in prison to affect that direction.”
McGowan’s lawyer Iain Paterson said she knew she could be sent to prison for what she had done and had made plans with her grandmother to care for her two young children.
Mr Paterson said his client also cares for her 17-year-old brother, who has “behavioural issues”.
McGowan and McVeigh will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh next month when background reports have been prepared.*
Lindsay was serving a six-year jail term imposed in May 2018.
He was also subject of a serious crime prevention order, imposed on people involved in organised crime.
He was jailed for 42 months on Tuesday as Lord Weir told him: “Your sentence should have acted as a deterrent to your involvement in this pernicious market.
“It appeared that it did not.
“I am bound to take into account all that has been said on your behalf.
“Had you been found guilty after trial, the sentence would have been 56 months.”
‘Significant’ Tayside trafficker
In 2018, the court heard how father-of-four Lindsay played “a significant role” in trafficking high purity cocaine worth an estimated £200,000 into Tayside.
He was the target for a police surveillance operation and was chased down by officers after he fled from a car stopped on a dual carriageway.
It was his third conviction of Class A drug trafficking, among 48 convictions including violence, possession of offensive weapons and drugs charges.
Lindsay trafficked the drugs between November 23 and December 14 2017.
The offence was aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime.
- At the High Court in Edinburgh on October 25, McGowan and McVeigh were made subject to community payback orders.
For more local court content visit our dedicated page, or join us on Facebook.
