A Fife man has been jailed for his role in a cocaine chain and producing a large knife in a supermarket.
Peter McCrossan entered a Kirkcaldy shop and pulled an eight-inch blade from his trousers, causing terrified customers to flee.
The year before, the 30-year-old was caught storing cocaine with a potential street value of more than £18,000.
He previously appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to plead guilty to being concerned in supply of the class A drug, behaving in a threatening or abusive manner causing fear or alarm, and resisting arrest.
On Monday, he was jailed for 30 months.
Valium and vodka
Defence solicitor Kerr Sneddon said: “With regards to the drugs, he was pressurised by those higher up the food chain.
“He is in the chain, albeit I would suggest at a very low level.
“He seems to have said all the right things, indicating feeling a sense of relief when he did hand himself in.
“At that time he was taking class A drugs. Unsurprisingly he couldn’t sleep.
“He was taking Valium. It didn’t make him sleep. He took a large amount of vodka.
“He’s assessed as a medium risk of offending.
“Despite the serious nature of these offences, given that he has remained out of trouble for over two years, he’s not taking drugs, he’s working and he’s doing sport, I would ask my lord to consider a relatively long restriction of liberty order.”
McCrossan had previously been on supervised bail.
Sheriff James Williamson said: “Mr McCrossan has in his possession a significant quantity of cocaine.
“Without him, there is no chain.
“I’m not prepared to deal with this on any basis other than a custodial sentence.”
The Sheriff imposed 30 months imprisonment, 20 of which were in relation to the cocaine offence.
Crimes described
At a previous hearing, prosecutor Alistair McDermid told the court that on March 17 2022 police searched McCrossan’s home and found a bag of cocaine and a carrier bag containing scales and more of the drug.
The total weight of the cocaine was 223g, with a potential street value between £7,500 and £18,640.
On August 26 last year, witnesses in their homes looked out their windows to see McCrossan standing in his home street, Orkney Place, waving a large knife above his head, before entering a nearby Greens store.
The fiscal depute said: “He went to the crisp aisle and pulled a knife from the waistband of his trousers.
“The blade was approximately eight inches in length”.
Two police officers entered the shop as members of the public were “running away crying and screaming,” the fiscal said.
McCrossan gave up the knife but then resisted arrest and flailed his arms.
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