Men caught dealing drugs while breaking lockdown travel rules jailed

Two men caught dealing drugs after breaking lockdown travel rules have been jailed.

Stuart Kelly, 43 and Daniel Pratt, 40, were caught on March 5, 2021, in Aberdeen city centre in a Volkswagen Golf registered to an address in Fraserburgh.

Prosecutor Chris Fyffe told the High Court in Glasgow: “Police stopped the vehicle to find out the purposes of the journey which was during Covid-19 restrictions.”

Officers went on to find heroin with a value of around £12,000 in the vehicle.

There was also a further £10,000 of a mixing agent used to bulk out drugs.

On Thursday, Kelly, of Fraserburgh, was jailed for five years and 219 days.

He faced a mandatory seven year sentence as it was his third class A drugs conviction, but it was cut due to his guilty plea.

Pratt, of Sandhaven, Aberdeenshire, was locked up for three years and nine months.

The duo had both admitted last month to being concerned in the supply of heroin.

Judge Douglas Brown told them: “Trafficking class A drugs is a serious offence due to the potential damage it can cause communities.

“Heroin is well known as a particular danger in relation to the damage it can bring.”

The earlier hearing was told how passenger Kelly was clocked throwing a bag into the back seat of the car.

Abattoir worker Pratt, who was driving, was described as “nervous”.

He claimed he was in Aberdeen to visit a friend, but could not give a name of the person or where they stayed.

Drugs were soon found in the vehicle, with some hidden within the lining of the motor’s roof.

David Moggach, defending Kelly, said he had turned to drugs having previously been hospitalised for six months due to a house fire and then losing his fishing job.

The court heard Pratt told social workers doing a pre-sentencing report that he was clueless as to why the journey was made that night.

However his lawyer Bill Adam said Pratt now wanted to “apologise” for what was said and that he had been “nervous” at the interview.