Cannabis dealer sent to prison for 14 months

A MAN from Lerwick has been imprisoned for 14 months after being caught with two kilograms of cannabis resin at the NorthLink ferry terminal in the town last year.

Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday heard that Michael Holmes, 34, of Gilbertson Road, was caught by police “acting on intelligence” as he left the ferry at Holmsgarth on 26 September.

The drugs, which were split into 24 bars, had an estimated value of between £2,000 and £5,600 depending how they were sold.

Holmes had at first denied the bag containing the class B drug was his, but CCTV evidence showed him carrying the “easily identifiable” bag onto the ferry in Aberdeen.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said that Holmes was angry and frustrated at having allowed himself to be “used” in the deal that would net him a relatively small amount of money.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said that being concerned in the supply of drugs in any scale would mean imprisonment. In passing sentence, he said that the crime had involved “substantial planning”, but Holmes had pleaded guilty at an early stage and had only been involved in the supply of cannabis on the single date.