News / Sheriff stands firm on jailing dealers
A YOUNG Shetland drug dealer was jailed for a year at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday despite a passionate plea from his solicitor to spare him a custodial sentence.
Ross Gordon Lowe had pled guilty at an earlier hearing to supplying cannabis to a circle of friends from an address in Lerwick over a ten month period between March 2011 and January 2012.
Defence agent Liam MacAllister told the court that his 24 year old client had turned his life around since admitting the charge and should be given a chance to keep his liberty.
Lowe, who now lives with his aunt at 296 North Deeside Road, Aberdeen, had since found full-time employment in a kitchen and was hoping to become a fully qualified chef, the solicitor said.
He said his client was working long hours and was highly motivated to improve himself.
“He knows that he played a part in criminal activity but has done everything he could do to avoid a custodial sentence,” MacAllister said.
But Sheriff Philip Mann said drug dealers would be sent to jail unless there were exceptional circumstances.
He said he could not detect such “exceptional circumstances” in this case but acknowledged that Lowe’s involvement in supplying the Class B drug to friends had not been on a commercial level.
Jailing him for 12 months he said it was his duty to send out a strong message to everyone involved in drug dealing.
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