AWOL soldier: Garry Matheson jailed for three and a half years at the High Court in Edinburgh. Pic: © STV
An AWOL soldier who was caught with a consignment of cocaine worth more than £45,000 on the streets has been jailed for three and a half years.
Garry Matheson was a passenger in a VW Polo car when police stopped it as it drove into Drumnadrochit, Inverness-shire, after receiving intelligence that drugs were in the vehicle.
Four packages wrapped in brown paper were found in the pocket of a jacket worn by Matheson, 22.
Under a kilogram of cocaine worth a potential £45,500 on the streets was found in the packaging.
But the High Court in Edinburgh heard that Matheson thought he was delivering money in a bid to wipe out a debt he built up because of a cocaine habit.
Matheson, described as a prisoner in Inverness, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug on August 21 last year on the A82 Inverness to Fort William Road at Drumnadrochit.
A judge told him he had admitted involvement with a "substantial quantity" of cocaine. Lord Pentland said: "The courts have consistently made clear that persons who choose, for whatever reason, to play a part in the supply of Class A drugs must expect to receive a substantial sentence of imprisonment."
He told Matheson, who carried out the drug trafficking after being granted bail, that he would have faced a sentence of more than five years, but for his guilty plea.
The court heard that Matheson was a serving soldier in the British Army, but had been "absent without leave" for three months before the offence.
After the car was stopped Matheson was questioned by police and he said that he had been drinking in Inverness before driving around in the car. He said he was feeling cold and took the jacket of a rear shelf.
The other four people in the car denied any knowledge of the drugs and maintained that the jacket they were found in did not belong to them.
Police were told that Matheson asked the car driver to take him to Fort William for a meeting and gave him £50 to cover the cost of petrol.
The court heard Matheson had been staying with relatives in Inverness and went AWOL from the Army after "tension" between him and an officer.
At the time of the offence he was struggling to deal with a cocaine habit that was costing a significant amount of money on a daily basis.
Matheson was not getting his pay and built up debts. He was constantly receiving threats by text to repay the money. He believed that the trip he was on when stopped by police was to deliver money, the court heard.
