A Dundee drug courier caught with around £20,000 worth of substances has avoided jail after claiming he was pressured into it to pay off debts.
Alexander Williams, 53, admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and amphetamine.
He was stopped in a layby on the A90 by police, who found the cocaine in his car.
When he was approached, Williams was seen to drop a mobile phone towards the footwell of the driver’s seat.
He was told he would be detained and pointed officers to the drugs in his glove box.
Officers then attended at Williams’ house at 10.40pm and discovered a huge haul of amphetamine and cocaine, as well as mixers normally used to mix plaster and scales with traces of amphetamine.
His solicitor, Paul Parker-Smith, told Dundee Sheriff Court: “His difficulties started ten years go when he lost his father and then both maternal grandparents within a short period of time.
“He lapsed into drug misuse.
“He accumulated debt, then drug debt.
“He was put under pressure to transport these drugs and succumbed.
“He felt very isolated and had no one to turn to.”
Sheriff Pino Di Emidio said Williams, a first offender, only just qualified for a non-custodial sentence.
He placed him on a community payback order with a requirement for supervision for two years and 300 hours of unpaid work to be carried out in one year.
Williams has also been ordered to remain within his home address at Strachan Avenue, Douglas, between the hours of 7pm and 7am.
