A dopey drug dealer was caught red handed with more than £45,000 worth of illicit substances — after stopping off at a shopping centre to smoke some of his stash and setting off the fire alarms.
Christopher Kinghorn was then found in a taxi yards from Dundee’s police HQ by police sent looking for him after he repeatedly set off fire alarms in the city’s Overgate shopping centre by burning heroin in the toilets there.
He then hopped in a cab and set off with more than half a kilo of heroin, a kilo of amphetamine and 16,000 etizolam tablets stashed in a rucksack and supermarket carrier bag.
The taxi was pulled over on the city’s North Marketgait — which runs past Tayside Division’s Bell Street HQ — after CCTV operators were ordered to trace his movements after he left the nearby shopping centre.
Fiscal depute Sue Ruta told Dundee Sheriff Court: “Around 4pm on March 23 CCTV operators were requested to trace the accused who had been setting off fire alarms by burning drugs in the toilets.
“He was found in a stationary taxi nearby.
“He was in possession of a rucksack and Tesco bag for life and was searched.
“A number of bags containing drugs were found.
“That included a total of 697.49 grams of diamorphine, valued at £27,890.
“There were 1252 grams of amphetamine with a potential value of £12,520.
“And he had 16,173 etizolam tablets with a potential value of £16,173.
“The accused also had £1,432.34 in his possession.”
Kinghorn, 40, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pleaded guilty on indictment to being concerned in the supply of heroin, amphetamine and etizolam on March 23 this year at North Marketgait, Dundee.
He further admitted being in possession of a knife on the same date.
Defence solicitor John Boyle said: “He had run up a significant drug debt in excess of £1000 and certain individuals had asked him to move these bags of drugs along with the cash from one address to another.
“He was in the process of doing that when he stopped to smoke some of the heroin, drawing police attention to him.
“This would have made inroads into his debt.”
Sheriff Alastair Brown deferred sentence for social work background reports until July and remanded Kinghorn in custody meantime.
