Woman handed jail term for heroin supply

A WOMAN has been jailed for just under a year after admitting to supplying heroin at a Lerwick address in early 2014.

Thirty nine year old Pauline Flaws, of Belville Street, Greenock, had previously been warned to expect a custodial sentence for the offence – committed on 28 February last year.

Lerwick Sheriff Court heard that police officers found Flaws in possession of heroin with a value of £1,250.

Defence agent Ian McGregor said the drugs were primarily for personal use with the intention of supplying one other individual, but it was “not a commercial enterprise by any stretch of imagination”.

Flaws had been involved in using heroin since 2008, McGregor told the court, but had decided she no longer wished to associate with those dealing the class A substance in Shetland.

She travelled to Greenock to obtain some heroin last February. A few months after the offence was committed she moved to Greenock and registered with a drug service.

Flaws has since been prescribed methadone and, though she still occasionally reverts back to heroin, her use is becoming less frequent, McGregor said.

The court heard that she “doesn’t have her troubles to seek” with various health ailments leaving her with “very limited” mobility. 

McGregor said it was unlikely she would be able to carry out unpaid hours, but asked Sheriff Philip Mann to consider a restriction of liberty order rather than prison.

Her move to Greenock to get away from the Shetland drug scene amounted to a realisation at the age of 39 that “her life needed to change”, he added.

But Sheriff Mann told Flaws: “You are well aware that concern in the supply of controlled drugs is extremely serious. 

“I have heard everything said by your agent, but even supplying one other person facilitates drug dealing higher up the scale. There is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”

He sentenced her to a 46-week jail term, reduced from 52 weeks to reflect her early guilty plea.