Heroin dealer avoids jail

A LONG term heroin addict in Shetland escaped a jail sentence yesterday

(Wednesday) after he convinced Lerwick Sheriff Court that he was tackling his habit.

David Jamieson Inkster, aged 35, of 24 Nederdale, Lerwick, had pled guilty last month to supplying the Class A drug between 1 July and 24 September last year.

Police found heroin worth more than £3,500 along with eight mobile phones, electronic scales, plastic bags and almost £600 in cash when they raided an address at 9 Nordavatn, Lerwick.

Last month procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told the court that Inkster was heavily involved in the islands’ drug culture.

Yesterday Tommy Allan said his client had picked up his heroin habit in jail when he was quite young and had got involved in dealing to support his own habit.

But he said Inkster was now committed to escaping his addiction and was willing to undergo a drug treatment and testing order, while funds had been found for residential rehabilitation.

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“A drug treatment and testing order would be harder for him than a custodial sentence. It would rule out the possibility of him breaching the position of trust he was placed in, and if he were to avoid custody he’s not home and dry.”

Sheriff Graeme Napier said that it had become obvious to him that over the last two years the use of Class A drugs had “exploded” in Shetland.

But he said that Inkster appeared to be “very much down the pecking order of the cases I have been dealing with over the last two years and I therefore feel that I can make an exception to my normal approach to sending you to custody”.

Instead the sheriff placed him on probation for 18 months with a drug treatment and testing order, but warned him that he would be facing a three year jail sentence if he breached his probation.