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Man fined for ‘fleeting’ cannabis possession

ATTEMPTING to hide a package of cannabis when police searched a Lerwick property has cost a man from Bristol £240.

11 October 2018 11:16

Patrick Flaherty, of Riverland Drive, received the fine when he appeared at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday.

The 28-year-old pleaded guilty to possessing the class B drug at an address on Lerwick’s John Jamieson Closs on 6 June 2017.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told the court that police searched the property immediately after a “suspect package” was delivered there.

Flaherty was in the property at the time and while the package was not intended for him, he grabbed it and put it in his pocket as he knew what was inside.

The package contained 28g of cannabis, which Mackenzie said was worth £466.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client was in Shetland at the time visiting family members.

He said Flaherty was not as “quick-witted” as he usually would be as he was still feeling the effects of imbibing a “large quantity” of alcohol the night before.

Allan added that his client had already lost out on a job after travelling to Shetland for a previous court appearance.

While Sheriff Ian Cruickshank noted that the fiscal accepted the offence as a “fleeting” possession, he fined Flaherty £240.

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