A teenage drug dealer ran off when police found ecstasy worth more than £1,000 in his rucksack.
Kevin Raithel legged it when cops searched his backpack and found the illegal stash.
The haul was discovered after police were called to a report of youths smoking something outside an address in Stonehaven.
Despite initially escaping the officers, Raithel – who was 18 at the time – could not evade the law for long and was later traced and arrested.
Fiscal depute Ross Canning told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “At 1.40pm on March 21 2019, police were tasked to attend at MacDonald Road in Stonehaven due to an anonymous caller noting a group of youths smoking a substance outside an address.
“Police attended and found the accused standing within a rear garden.”
Officers gave chase
Officers searched him and found a rucksack belonging to him which contained ecstasy in a number of different forms.
Mr Canning said: “The accused thereafter ran from police out of the garden of the address.
“Police pursued the accused but he failed to stop and they lost sight of him.”
He was later traced and arrested.
The court heard the drugs found consisted of 12 ecstasy tablets worth £60-£120, four self-seal bags containing £40-£60 of MDMA in the form of “sugar-type” crystals, along with a 15.4g of the MDMA crystals worth £600-£900.
Raithel, 20, of Nigg, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of ecstasy.
Defence agent Laura Gracie told the court there has been “a complete U-turn in his behaviour”.
Accused has ‘turned a corner’ since offence
She said her client had not committed any further offences, adding: “He has distanced himself completely from his previous peer group.
“He’s now in employment.
“Whatever it was that was going on at the time is no longer a problem for him.”
Sheriff Kevin Duffy told Raithel: “I take into account you were quite young when this offence was committed.
“You seem to have turned a corner as far as this type of behaviour is concerned, so hopefully we can just draw a line under this.”
He fined Raithel £500.