A drug dealer who sold cannabis to Moray students just yards from school gates has avoided being locked up.
Police were called when a 13-year-old pupil at Elgin Academy was caught with the herbal substance in the school buildings.
Yesterday, Jack Fraser, who lives in the town and attended the school, was sentenced at Elgin Sheriff Court for supply and possession offences.
Fiscal depute Alison Young revealed the 18-year-old discussed setting up the cash transaction with the teen over Facebook messenger – and arranged to meet near the Spar on Morriston Road in September last year.
Defence solicitor Brent Lockie explained that Fraser only sold drugs to “young men” about 16 years old whom he knew from a local skate park and did it mainly to provide for his young child.
But Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov said: “I think he has realised he was making money from it and so continued on a commercial enterprise.”
Mrs Young said the Elgin Academy pupil revealed Fraser’s name as the source of the cannabis while he was being interviewed by police.
The student and the dealer disagreed over how much cash was handed over for the drugs, with the 13-year-old saying it was £15 while Fraser insisting it was just £2.
Mrs Young said: “During interview the accused kept trying to suggest he had not been involved before eventually admitting he had been.”
The court was told Fraser had been subject to scrutiny following the incident near to the school and was subsequently searched by officers on September 9 last year after they spotted him in a taxi on Barlink Road at about 12.40am.
They recovered cocaine worth up to £125.
Mr Lockie said: “He has predominantly done this to pay for his own habit and for his young child.
“The extent of his dealing was limited to young men he knew from the skate park and he didn’t realise that this young chap was as young as he was.
“He has taken steps to address his own habit but is not entirely clear of it yet.”
Fraser, of Christie Place in Elgin, was sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid work, placed under supervision for 18 months and put under a curfew for 145 days after pleading guilty to supplying cannabis between August 15 and September 13 last year and possessing cocaine.