A former Aberdeen chef who was previously offered help to beat his drug addiction has landed back in the dock after a police raid uncovered Class A drugs worth £880 in his home.
Christopher Tonner embarked on a life of petty crime after the collapse of his popular restaurant business and despite being offered support to beat his drug addiction last year he’s ended up back behind bars.
The 41-year-old’s firm used to operate both The Adelphi Kitchen and barbecue restaurant Cue until both closed during the oil and gas downturn.
In February last year, Tonner admitted a string of offences, including stealing a car, trying to break into others and shoplifting.
Christopher Tonner: Drugs ‘took over his life’
On that occasion, the court was told how drugs “took over his life” and were the “root cause” of Tonner’s offending.
However social workers deemed him unsuitable for an intensive drug order and instead handed him unpaid work and supervision with an element of addiction support included.
Now, more than a year on, he’s proved unable to deal with his addiction and is again being offered support.
Fiscal depute Stephanie Cardow said Tonner, alongside his two co-accused Michael Frimpong, 21, and Olajede Webb, 27, were within Tonner’s Park Road flat when police raided it at 12.30pm on March 30 this year.
“A search warrant had been granted and on entering police found 18 wraps containing a brown substance which later tested positive for diamorphine,” she said.
“They also found 23 wraps containing a hard white substance which tested positive for crack cocaine.”
The cocaine had a potential street value of £640 while the heroin could have fetched £240.
Tonner and the other two men were held in custody at HMP Grampian until they appeared for sentencing last week.
All three admitted two charges of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.
‘His whole life had just crashed’
Last year Tonner’s defence agent Neil McRobert said: “His business failed, his marriage then broke down and his contact with his son then broke down with the end of his marriage.
“His whole life had just crashed.
“The way he dealt with that, unfortunately, was to start using substances … unfortunately, that being heroin and crack cocaine.”
Thirteen months on, the solicitor again asked that his client be afforded the chance to take part in a drug treatment and testing order to get himself clean of substances.
Tonner, of Park Road, Aberdeen, had his sentence deferred for one month and was granted bail to allow for a drug treatment and testing order to be carried out.
Frimpong, of Charnwood Avenue, Bedford, and Webb, of Allandale Road, Huddersfield, were both handed 12-month supervision orders and 225 hours of unpaid work.
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