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A package containing drugs was delivered to a Perthshire address as police carried out a raid on the property.
The delivery, which contained 161 grammes of cannabis, was addressed to 30-year-old Steven Lorimer, who was running a mail order drugs business from his flat at Philip Redford Court, St Madoes.
Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson told Perth Sheriff Court that he had been advertising himself as a “one-stop THC shop.”
The abbreviation refers to tetrahydrocannabinol – the principal constituent of cannabis.
Text messages the accused had sent also contained a “menu” with a number of prices for different types of cannabis in different strains, strengths and forms.
Officers recovered cannabis with a combined maximum illicit value of almost £30,000 during the two searches, explained the fiscal.
And that led to Lorimer, described as a prisoner at Perth, being jailed for 39 months when he appeared on indictment this week.
The sentence was backdated to February 13, when he was first remanded.
He admitted that between June 19, 2018, and February 12, 2019, at the Royal Mail sorting office in Perth’s Breadalbane Terrace – and at his home – while acting with another or others, he was concerned in the supply of the class B drug.
He was subject to an August 8, 2018, bail order from the Perth court at the time.
Lorimer has a drugs conviction from 2015 which initially attracted an 18-month prison sentence but that was reduced to a community payback order after a high court appeal.
His co-accused this week, 25-year-old Craig Merchant, of Scott Street, Perth, had his sentence deferred until September 3 for a background report.
He admitted being concerned in the supply of cannabis from the St Madoes address on February 12, 2019.
Ms Robertson told the court that on June 19, 2018, a member of staff at the sorting office intercepted a package, addressed to Lorimer, as it “smelt strongly of cannabis.”
A search warrant was obtained for Lorimer’s home and was executed on July 18, 2018. He arrived while the police were there and a rucksack he was carrying was searched and contained a number of packages addressed to a “named person.”
Three of them contained cannabis with a total weight of just under 100 grammes.
Lorimer also volunteered there was about £1000 in cash in the house but told officers: “Everything in the house is mine – I use cannabis for medical purposes.”
A full search of the property revealed several items of drugs paraphernalia.
A further search warrant was executed on February 12, 2019, when officers witnessed Lorimer hide items under cupboard kickboards and saw Merchant try to jump through a rear window.
As police carried a full search of the house, the postman arrived with the package for Lorimer. They seized cannabis oil, hundreds of capsules containing the same substance, cannabis powder, liquid cannabis and herbal cannabis.
The total value of the drugs seized in the first search, including the seizure from the sorting office, was just over £16,000.
Herbal cannabis, 250 tablets and 11 grammes of cannabis oil seized in the second search in February, 2019, including the items delivered by the postman, was worth around £13,545.
The plea tendered by Merchant is restricted to cannabis found within his rucksack and the cannabis that could be linked to him through fingerprint evidence.
It weighed a total of 468 grammes and had a top value of £4680.
Solicitor Paul Parker Smith, for Merchant, will give his plea in mitigation after the background report has been prepared.
