A man caught dealing drugs from an Aberdeen department store has been warned he is facing a jail sentence.
Chide Masuku was captured on CCTV handing a package to a woman in Debenhams on October 20.
Staff at the store contacted the police, who managed to trace the 36-year-old in the city centre.
Officers searched Masuku and found a package containing cocaine and a set of keys to a flat in Torry.
And when they arrived at the address they discovered more than £50,000 of the class A drug hidden in packets of porridge.
Masuku appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday and admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine between May 7 and October 20 last year.
Fiscal depute Kelly Mitchell said police had received a tip-off that drugs were being dealt in shopping centres around the city.
She said: “Police had received intelligence in relation to drug dealing in the city centre that had been occurring in shopping centres.
“On October 20, 2015, at around 2.15pm, a member of staff at Debenhams had seen the accused on CCTV carrying out what he suspected was a drug deal.
“He saw the accused handing something over to a female and he contacted the police who traced the accused in the city centre.”
Representing Masuku, of Tamworth Street, Oldham, solicitor Kevin Longino said his client was originally from Zimbabwe and had been forced to flee his country due to political violence.
He said that when he arrived in the UK he started to work as a handyman but was soon accused of stealing £20,000 from a house he had been employed at.
Mr Longino said that the owner of the house ordered his client to pay back the £20,000, and when he could not he said he was forced into carrying out the drug deals.
The court heard Masuku was a religious father-of-three who was heavily involved in the church.
Mr Longino said he was a vulnerable man who had never been in trouble before.
Sheriff Graeme Napier deferred sentence on Masuku for background reports but warned him that because of the value of drugs involved he was almost inevitably going to jail.
He will return to court for sentence next month.
