A man who was found with cannabis potentially worth £2,700 in his Lerwick home has narrowly avoided a jail sentence.
Joseph Irvine, of Rudda Court, was instead placed under supervision for two years and given 180 hours of unpaid work to complete when he appeared at Lerwick Sheriff Court yesterday.
The 21-year-old previously admitted possessing the class B drug with intent to supply at his home address on March 10.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie previously told the court that police found 162.5g of cannabis in Irvine’s home when they searched the property.
The drugs could be valued at £2,700 if broken down into its smallest sellable amounts, the fiscal said, although it would have been worth around £960 in the form it was found in.
Defence agent Michael Chapman told the court that his client was funding his own use of cannabis by selling the drug to “friends and associates”.
Irvine was someone with a “troubled background” who used cannabis to self-medicate a post-traumatic stress disorder.
He had made “significant progress” since the offence and was seeing mental health and substance misuse teams, Chapman added.
Sheriff Philip Mann said if there was any indication Irvine had been supplying to the wider community then he would have been sent to prison.
Taking into account the nature of the charge, as well as his background, age and progress since the offence, the sheriff placed Irvine on a community payback order.
