A sniffer dog discovered nearly £5,000 of cannabis stashed in a Fraserburgh shop stockroom during a trading standards visit, a court has heard.
Officers, along with the HMRC, raided the town’s Nina Convenience Store for an unrelated matter last November.
During the unannounced visit, their sniffer dog led them to a cardboard box in the store room – where they discovered the haul of Class B drugs.
Yesterday, 40-year-old Haider Ali appeared for sentencing at Peterhead Sheriff Court after previously admitting being concerned in the supply of the drug.
Fiscal depute Lixia Sun said: “Ali is the previous owner of the locus. The locus is now owned by his brother but, he would still have access.
“On Friday, November 27 2015 a number of officials from Trading Standards and HMRC attended at the locus accompanied by a police officer in order to carry out a joint operation not related to this case.”
Miss Sun described the visit as “unannounced” and said a search dog which was with the officers “indicated to a cardboard box within the stockroom”.
Inside the officials found two packages containing cannabis. In total, 293.8g (10oz) of the substance were found and confiscated.
Miss Sun told the court the drugs had a street value of around £1,750 if sold in the state they were discovered in, or £4,875 if broken down into “1.5g deals”.
Ali’s defence agent Sam Milligan said his client accepted responsibility right from the start.
He added: “What we have here is a provision of a safehouse for a single, solitary day.”
Sheriff Eric Brown told Ali: “This is the first conviction you have for a drug related offence.
“You accepted your responsibility for this at the earliest opportunity and that is reflected in your early plea. I’m prepared to deal with this by way of a community payback order as an alternative to a custodial sentence.”
Ali, of 23 Lochpots Road, Fraserburgh, was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work as part of a community payback order.
