10 festival-goers fined over drugs at T in the Park
Festival-goers aged from 16 to 62 were hit with more than 5,000 pounds in fines in a single day after they admitted having drugs at T in the Park.
Festival-goers aged from 16 to 62 were hit with more than 5,000 pounds in fines in a single day after they admitted having drugs at T in the Park.
A total of 10 different individuals were fined 5,100 pounds after being caught with drugs including cocaine, Ecstasy and cannabis.
This year's T in the Park at Strathallan Estate in July was marred by the drug-related deaths of two teenagers and a 29-year-old man.
On Tuesday, Perth Sheriff Court heard revellers who were caught with drugs at the Perthshire event had come from as far afield as Elgin and Cheshire.
A 16-year-old youth from Ayrshire, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted having cocaine and 10 Ecstasy tablets on 9 July and sentence on him was deferred for reports.
A 17-year-old, who also cannot be named, was fined 150 pounds after he admitted having Ecstasy at the festival on 8 July. Another 17-year-old, from Dunfermline, was fined 450 pounds.
Darlington woman Julie Robinson, 38, was hit with the biggest fine of 1,200 pounds after she admitted having cocaine, Ecstasy and cannabis on 8 July.
The oldest reveller - 62-year-old Sean McLernon from Kilsyth - was fined 500 pounds for Ecstasy and cannabis resin possession on 8 July.
Dominic Lamb, 46, from Bury, was fined 400 pounds for having heroin and cannabis; Brett Mathieson, 25, from Elgin, was fined 300 pounds; Claire Collier, 41, from Wilmslow, was fined 200 pounds; Christopher Smart, 29, Kirkintilloch, was fined 600 pounds; Steven Wishart, 25, Glasgow, was fined 800 pounds; and Barry Wood, 25, Dundee, was fined 500 pounds.
Sentence was deferred on 20-year-old Rhys Sutherland, of Saline, Fife, after he admitted supplying MDMA to Andrew Wallace during T in the Park on 8 July.
Drug recoveries by Police Scotland increased at the festival this year, partly due to an amnesty promoted by the force in the wake of the trio of deaths.
Pathologists confirmed that illicit drugs were found in the system of 29-year-old father-of-three Jim Richardson, whose body was found in a field two days after the event.
A verdict of "presumed drugs related" was also recorded for teenagers Megan Bell and Peter McCallum, who both died in a temporary hospital on the site of the festival, near Auchterarder.
Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Murdo Fraser, said: "Festival organisers must take responsibility for public safety, and that includes discouraging the use of narcotics.
"An approach where drug use is seen as part and parcel of the festival cannot be allowed to continue -- lessons must be learned."
The circumstances around Jim Richardson's death and Police Scotland's initial response are under investigation by a force watchdog.
Megan Bell, from Seaham, County Durham, died in the early hours of July 8 after collapsing in the festival's Slam dance tent on the first night of T in the Park.
Pathologists recorded both her death, and that of student Peter MacCallum - who died at 6.30 am the same day - as "presumed drug related."