Inverness woman (61) jailed for letting her home be used for selling cocaine and heroin
An Inverness council house tenant who allowed her home to be used for drug dealing was jailed for 16 months at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Tracey Mackintosh (61) was caught when police acting on intelligence raided the Rosehaugh Road premises with a drugs search warrant in the summer of 2020.
Mackintosh appeared from bail on indictment and admitted the charge against her.
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The court heard that when police burst in they found a quantity of brown powder and white powder in wraps for dealing which transpired to be crack cocaine and heroin with a total street value of about £1550.
And while the officers were still in the house, fiscal depute Emily Hood told the court that a male “customer” arrived and when challenged told the police: “I’m only here for two brown and one white.”
The brown powder in 35 packages was the cocaine worth about £800 on the street, and the white powder in 25 wraps was heroin worth £750.
Defence solicitor Graham Mann asked Sheriff Sara Matheson to spare his client a jail sentence despite her extensive list of previous convictions including several drug charges.
He said Mackintosh had been “targeted” by others regarding use of her house and she did not do it in exchange for monetary gain, but for the drugs given to her. She was in poor health and more of a victim in this concern, he argued.
However, Sheriff Matheson told Mackintosh she must consider that while she had had a life “blighted by drug abuse”, by allowing herself to be involved she was helping enable others to blight their lives.
Sheriff Matheson also noted that three of Mackintosh’s previous convictions were at High Court level, and she could see no alternative apart from custody.
Macintosh was jailed for 16 months, reduced from 18 due to her early plea of guilty to the charge.
