Stabbing victim avoids jail over supply of cocaine and cannabis
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Police investigating a serious assault at a house in Wick also uncovered a drugs offence. It resulted in David Macgregor appearing at Wick Sheriff Court on Tuesday.
Macgregor (45) admitted, on indictment, having been concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis on December 6, 2020.
However, Sheriff Mark Lindsay KC was told it wasn't a commercial deal and that no money had changed hands.
Fiscal Shamielah Ghafar told the court that initially, the police officers had gone to Macgregor's home in Osborne Close, Wick, after receiving a report of an incident there. He had been repeatedly stabbed by a former partner.
Miss Ghafar said that Macgregor's mobile phone revealed messages from friends who had run short of drugs for their own personal use and had approached the accused to help them out. He provided them with 5.5g of cocaine and 7.91g of cannabis.
George Mathers appealed to Sheriff Lindsay KC to step back from a custodial sentence which was almost inevitable in such offences.
The solicitor said that Macgregor was no longer able to work as a plumber in the family business and was still suffering chronic pain in his left arm as a result of the stabbing incident – the subject of a previous case before the court – and was taking medication to relieve "constant pain".
Mr Mathers submitted that there were "exceptional circumstances" in the case that might justify a sentence other than a custodial one.
Macgregor was one of a "circle of friends" who helped each other when they ran short of drugs.
The accused had since taken steps to overcome his own addiction to drugs.
Sheriff Lindsay agreed that, generally speaking, being concerned in the supply of drugs would attract a custodial sentence but accepted Mr Mathers' submission regarding the exceptional circumstances and concluded that prison "would not be in the interests of justice".
Instead, the sheriff, who observed that Macgregor was engaging with the authorities on his drug habit, made him subject to supervision for a period of two years and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work.
