Perthshire Drug Dealer Jailed After Caught With 37K Texts
A drug dealer from Perthshire has been jailed for two years after being caught with 37,000 incriminating text messages on his mobile phone.
Blair Seaton was only caught with a small piece of cannabis but had to admit he was peddling the drug because of the volume of texts related to it on his phone.
Perth Sheriff Court was told that Seaton was sometimes sending and receiving hundreds of texts in a single day and most of them were about drugs.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: "The period covered is approaching six months. You were found with a significant sum of money and were supplying an illicit substance."
As well as the incriminating messages, Seaton was found with a set of scales in his car when he was stopped by police officers.
23 year old Seaton from Pitlochry, admitted being concerned in the supply of cannabis between 1 January and 20 June last year.
The court was told that the amount of cannabis found on Seaton when he was searched was so small that it failed to register any weight and had a minimal value.
But as well as the scales in his car he was also found with over 1,000 pounds in cash and the mobile phone crammed full of texts from his customers.
Fiscal depute Gavin Letford told the court Seaton was jobless but was not claiming benefits and police had received intelligence that he may be supplying the Highland Perthshire town of Pitlochry with drugs.
"Police on patrol saw him in the driver's seat of a vehicle parked by the war memorial. They went to speak to him and there was a strong smell of cannabis emanating from the vehicle.
"Police were aware of recent intelligence linking him with drug dealing activities in the town. A wallet was found containing 1,040 pounds. A small amount of cannabis was found.
"From his person they obtained a mobile phone and a clingfilm wrap containing a tiny amount of cannabis. It did not register any weight and has no specified value.
"The mobile phone was taken for examination. A total of 37,000 SMS messages were recovered and a large proportion were found to contain information of evidential value in relation to the supply of controlled drugs.
"The dates of the messages reflect those in the charge," Mr Letford said, revealing that Seaton was sending and receiving more than 200 messages every day on average.
Mr Letford added that Seaton's texts also included a number of picture messages which showed images of the cannabis he was supplying to people in Pitlochry.
"Some of the images were of cannabis and text messages related both to requests for cannabis being received and offers to sell cannabis which he had sent."
Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said: "This was a foolish enterprise. He knows that and is remorseful about it."