Fife drug dealer jailed

Scott Paterson (30), from Lochore, was sentenced for a series of offences including an incident when he overdosed on his own heroin and was found unconscious in Dunfermline High Street.

Police arriving to assist him found the rest of his heroin in a bag at his feet.

Previously, Paterson had broken into a house in Kirkcaldy and was chased by the owner, a female police officer.

Dunfermline Sheriff Court also heard the hapless crook had been stabbed seven times over another drugs deal that went wrong.

When police cordoned off the crime scene in Lochore, a stash of heroin was discovered hidden in Kinder eggs.

He also had an unsuccessful shoplifting spree when he put aftershaves worth £560 into a bag at Boots but was stopped before he could escape with them.

Paterson, a prisoner at Edinburgh, admitted that between October 25 and November 7 last year at High Street, Dunfermline, Lochleven Gardens, Lochore and elsewhere, he was concerned in the supply of heroin.

He also admitted that on August 17 he broke into a house at Marywell, Kirkcaldy, stealing a handbag and its contents.

Paterson further admitted that on March 18 last year at Boots in the Kingsgate Centre, Dunfermline, he stole a quantity of aftershave.

Depute fiscal Kyrsten Buist previously told the court that in the Kirkcaldy break-in, the woman had gone to bed and left her handbag in her conservatory.

At around 3am, Paterson had entered through a window which had been left open because of the humid conditions.

She woke up and heard him moving around the property then saw him trying open the conservatory door to get away. He was bare-chested and was using his tee-shirt to carry items.

As the woman chased him, Paterson shouted, “Dinnae!” He managed to escape but a police dog picked up his scent and he was caught nearby.

He met the description given and had put his tee-shirt on inside out. He was able to tell police where they could recover the officer’s warrant card, from a rubbish bin.

In the Dunfermline incident, staff at Stephen’s the Bakers in the High Street called the police when a man was seen lying in a close. Found in the bag next to him were two wraps of heroin.

After the Lochore incident, police recovered over 43 grams of heroin. This happened after Paterson had been stabbed seven times over a drugs dispute.

Defence solicitor Alexander Flett said, “He was stabbed for not doing what he was told to do, rather than it being over a drugs debt.”

Of the Dunfermline incident Mr Flett said, “He was preyed upon by others to hold a quantity of diamorphine. He had taken some for himself and it seems he was greedy and suffered what seems to have been an overdose. He was found incapacitated in an alley.”

He added that his client had suffered from a “dreadful heroin problem and that “he wouldn’t be the brains of any criminal operation.”

Sheriff Charles MacNair sent Paterson back to jail to serve the remaining 55 days of a previous sentence, from which he had been released early. He will then serve 33 months for the petition offences plus another 80 days for the shoplifting.