A Raploch man caught with 3455 street valium tablets worth between £2000 and £2300 escaped a jail term this week.
Robert McGowan had admitted a charge of being concerned in the supply of the tablets – class-C drug Etizolam – at an address in Stirling’s Scott Street on March 25 last year.
The 32-year-old, of Hazlebank Gardens, appeared for sentence at Stirling Sheriff Court on Wednesday this week.
Fiscal depute Danielle McDonald told the court that police had attended at the Scott Street address at 8.45am to execute a search warrant.
When a search of McGowan was carried out officers found cash in the front right pocket of his shorts.
Tablets were also found in the bathroom and a bedroom during the search.
Ms McDonald said four knotted bags containing tablets were recovered from the bathroom – as well as a tub containing sealed bags of tablets from the bedroom.
McGowan was arrested and taken to Falkirk Police Office and the tablets submitted for laboratory analysis.
The fiscal depute added: “In total there were 3,455 tablets with an estimated value of between £2000 and £2300. These were Etizolam tablets.”
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When cautioned and charged McGowan made no reply.
McGowan’s agent Frazer McCready told Sheriff Charles Lugton that his client had trouble with addiction at the time of the offence.
He added that McGowan had told officers during interview that he took hundreds of street valium tablets each day.
However, the lawyer pointed out that text messages had been found and McGowan accepted that “from time to time” he would sell some of the tablets to friends to fund his habit.
McGowan was currently on a detox prescription through the Community Alcohol and Drugs Service.
His last drug conviction, for possession, had been in 2008, Mr McCready added.
Sheriff Lugton sentenced McGowan to a community payback order comprising 12 months’ supervision as well as a 135-day restriction of liberty (tagging) order.
This confined McGowan to his home between the hours of 7pm and 7am seven days a week with the exception of Wednesday evenings when he attends drug recovery treatment.
