Young mum jailed for smuggling heroin

AN ABERDEEN woman who claimed she was forced by her violent, drug dealing boyfriend to smuggle almost one ounce of heroin into Shetland was jailed at Lerwick Sheriff Court yesterday (Wednesday).

Lisa Kerry Main, aged 23, whose address was given as Linksfield Place, admitted being concerned in the supply of 26.5 grammes of the Class A drug, an amount which could be bought in her home city for £600, but which could fetch £3,640 on the streets of Lerwick.

The young mother claimed she and her three year old daughter had been coerced by her boyfriend to travel with him to his home town of Wolverhampton before being threatened with violence unless she took the drugs to Shetland for onward supply.

She was arrested on 12 April last year after officers raided a house at 27 Leslie Road, Lerwick, following a tip off. As well as the drugs police found £2,540 in cash.

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When she appeared in court on 4 November Main said the money was to help her make her escape from her boyfriend, but yesterday she accepted that was not true. She failed to attend court twice in December due to a miscarriage.

Yesterday defence agent Ian McGregor argued that his client should be allowed her liberty, saying she had been ordered to carry out the drugs operation and been “quite simply terrified”.

Mr McGregor added that the boyfriend had made contact with Main only last week, and as a result had been arrested and was now in Aberdeen prison, and she was under the protection of the police.

He added that if Main was sent to jail she would be “more readily within (her boyfriend’s) reach” as he had contacts inside the prison system.

However Sheriff Graeme Napier said that other people involved in the illegal drugs trade faced similar threats and sent her to prison for 28 months, forfeiting the cash that had been found on her in April.