A drug dealer snared after being caught drunk behind the wheel of his car was today jailed for two-and-a-half years.
William Hawes was caught after a witness called police and said they believed he was under the influence.
Police found him sitting in the motor with the engine running in Dundee’s Law Road.
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A search of the car then found two bags of heroin hidden inside the vehicle.
A sheriff told him he had to impose a “deterrent” sentence because of soaring heroin death rates in Dundee.
Recent figures showed that last year there were 51 drug deaths in Dundee – up from 38 in 2016 – with heroin a factor in over half of those deaths.
Fiscal depute Charmaine Gilmartin told Dundee Sheriff Court the drugs were worth a total of £8,660 – and that other evidence was found in his house linking him to drug dealing.
Hawes, 26, of Court Street, Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to charges of being drunk in charge of a car and being concerned in the supply of diamorphine.
Defence solicitor George Donnelly said: “He was suffering from mental health problems, financial problems and a drug problem.
“The fact of the matter is low level users are preyed upon by those who supply.
“He is realistic when it comes to the ultimate disposal of this case.”
Sheriff Alastair Brown deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports and remanded Haws in custody meantime.
He said: “For the last year for which we have figures drugs were killing people in Dundee at the rate of one a week.
“That is significantly more than in 2016.
“There is a particular, and very serious, problem with drugs in Dundee.
“It has to be understood by everyone concerned in any way with heroin that this court will respond to the appalling rate of drug deaths with very firm sentencing.”
