A drug dealer caught red-handed with more than £2,600 worth of cocaine has been spared jail after a court heard he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Scott Ewen celebrated outside court after he narrowly avoided a custodial sentence for his involvement in dealing Class A drugs from a home in Aberdeen.
He was caught handling the cocaine at a flat belonging to an acquaintance in Claremont Street on August 5 2020, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
The 27-year-old was in the home when police arrived to arrest someone else at the property but soon attracted the attention of the officers himself.
Fiscal depute Tom Procter said Ewen was seen “trying to conceal certain items” so police officers conducted a drug search on him.
Drugs were worth £2,600
They found four separate packages containing 20 wraps of cocaine weighing 17.5 grammes in a rucksack. That haul had a street value of around £1,600.
Ewen was seen trying to discard another package that contained 8.45g of cocaine, worth around £1,000.
“There was other drug paraphernalia, such as scales, found in the locus as well as quantities of cash,” the fiscal added.
Ewen admitted one charge of being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
His defence agent Mike Monro said it was a case of his client being”in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
He said his client had been “anxious” and his “fidgeting caught the attention of police”.
“It was a classic case of being in the wrong place a the wrong time,” he said. “He was visiting a third party who was known to him. The accused saw he had a rucksack and drugs were within.
“He is a very anxious person and on the day in question didn’t expect uniformed police to turn up.
“When they did turn up to say he became agitated would be an understatement.
“He became an obvious person to be of interest to the police.”
‘Living in never-never land’
The solicitor added that his client was also in the “wrong place” by means of being in the company of “others who were feeding him drugs”.
“He was living in the never-never in that he couldn’t pay for the drugs.
“He was leaned upon and told what to do. He was literally the person transferring drugs from position A to position B and from person A to person B.”
The court heard Ewen now has a full-time job but had been well warned he could face jail, regardless.
Sheriff Gary Sutherland told Ewen: “You can thank your solicitor for the fact I am not imposing a custodial sentence.”
He handed Ewen, of Bonnyview Drive, Aberdeen, 225 hours of unpaid work.
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