Court / Lerwick man jailed after admitting large scale cannabis supply

A LERWICK man who had thousands of pounds worth of cannabis as well as cash hidden under floorboards at his home address has been jailed for two and a half years.

Steven Priest pleaded guilty to a charge of being involved in the supply of the Class B drug when he appeared at Lerwick Sheriff Court via video link from Grampian Prison on Thursday morning.

Police also found more than £30,000 of cash, scales and cash counting machines when they searched his flat at Lerwick’s Nederdale on 9 June this year.

Officers were executing a search warrant after receiving intelligence on the activities of the unemployed 59-year-old.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told the court that there were three others in the flat when police entered.

They noticed Priest standing in a recess in the hallway, and when searching that particular area, they found cash and drugs in a void below some loose floorboards.

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The fiscal said that in total 49 logs of compressed cannabis and £30,250 in cash had been found in the flat.

Broken down to street value the cannabis was potentially worth £26,000, the court heard.

Defence solicitor Tommy Allan said his client was realistic that given his criminal record a jail sentence was inevitable.

The solicitor said: “Clearly there are other people involved in this,” and added that Priest had a long-standing addiction problem and got involved in supplying cannabis to pay some off his drug debts.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank told Priest that for a “serious offence” such as this a custodial sentence would have been inevitable in any event.

He jailed Priest for 30 months backdated to 13 June when he was first taken into custody.

Sheriff Cruickshank also granted a motion for the forfeiture of the equipment found. 

A hearing to discuss the confiscation of the cash as well as social media devices belonging to others has been set for the 26 October.