News / Man jailed after selling heroin to pay off drugs debt
A TWENTY four year old man who sold “substantial amounts” of heroin to pay off a drugs debt has been sent to prison for two and a half years.
Robert Finnie, whose address was given as Grampian Prison, appeared from custody at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday to admit supplying the Class A drug at a number of locations on 16 October and 14 December last year.
The dealing took place at an address in Virkie, as well as at a post office on Dingwall’s High Street, NorthLink Ferries at Jamieson’s Quay in Aberdeen and elsewhere.
In mitigation, defence agent Chris Dowle said a friend of Finnie was a heroin supplier and had committed suicide.
The mother of the deceased said her son was owed money by Finnie, resulting in the 24 year old then taking up dealing himself to pay off the debt.
Dowle added that Finnie became “immersed in the supply of drugs” and was threatened when he tried to escape the illicit trade.
The defence agent said his client had spent large periods of his life unemployed and had suffered a fractured upbringing.
Dowle also confirmed that Finnie, who was convicted of an analogous matter in 2011, was currently serving a six-month jail sentence.
Sheriff Philip Mann said Finnie was “no stranger to this kind of offending” and that he entered into the world of drug dealing of his own free will.
He added that the quantity of drugs involved was “substantial” and that it had the “potential to wreck many lives in this community”.
Sheriff Mann placed Finnie behind bars for two and a half years, which included a discount of three months to reflect the time he had already spent in custody.
It will run consecutive to his current jail term, which has an earliest release date of 17 August.
Finnie will also spend one year under supervision when he is released from prison.
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