Panic buying lead to court for vacationing addict

By Gordon Darroch, @synthjock

 

A man has been fined £125 for possessing £10 of heroin that he bought “in panic” when his methadone prescription ran out while he was on holiday.

Police found the drugs in the home of 43-year-old Derek Hanvey in Lincoln Avenue, Glasgow, shortly after he bought the “tenner bag”, containing 0.2 grams of diamorphine, from a street dealer.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that Hanvey, a father of five, had been on a methadone prescription for 20 years and had long-standing drug addiction problems.

His defence agent said he had been on holiday in Egypt just before the offence on September 11 last year and “had been aware that he was not going to get his methadone the following day, and effectively panicked because of the effect that would have.”

Police raided his house so swiftly that Hanvey had no chance to consume the drugs, the court was told.

Sheriff Linda Ruxton said: “That tenner bag is going to cost you £125. It would have been £150, but I’ve given you some benefit for the fact that you have not gone to trial.”

Hanvey pled guilty to one charge of possession of heroin. He was acquitted of further charges of possessing diazepam and tampering with an electricity meter after the Crown accepted not guilty pleas.

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