A MAN caught with 6kg of cannabis in Old Kilpatrick was jailed for more than a year last week.


Scott Bennett, 35, was snared by plain clothed police officers in a car park next to the Twisted Thistle restaurant.


Dumbarton Sheriff Court heard officers investigated when Bennett began acting suspiciously and pulling up his sleeves as if inviting the officers to handcuff him while they talked to a passenger in his van.


Bennett appeared court last week for sentencing after admitting possessing cannabis resin with intent to supply at a previous hearing.


Procurator fiscal depute Sarah Healing told the court at a previous hearing: “It was 5.15pm and police officers in plain clothes were on mobile patrol in Old Kilpatrick when they observed a silver Audi Q7 travelling on Dumbarton Road turning in to the car park.

"They followed it and observed the accused standing in the car park and he engaged in conversation with the driver of the car [Audi]. They began acting suspiciously and avoided eye contact with the officers.”


The court then heard that the officers approached the two men and searched Bennett who appeared nervous. They discovered he had £585 on him.


Bennett was allowed to go as was the driver of the car but as the police left the car park they noticed a white Ford Transit parked on the pavement with someone inside.

They approached the van to speak to the passenger inside and saw that the keys were in the ignition. At that point Bennett came walking towards the van, he then pulled up his sleeves and put his wrists out towards the officers as if he was wanting to be handcuffed and told the officers that it was his van and had nothing to do with the passenger on board.


The van was then searched. The only thing in the van was a holdall which was found to contain six packages but in a compartment in the dash board above the steering wheel £3,940 in cash was discovered. 


His lawyer told the court on Thursday that Bennett turned to drugs to pay off debt.
He said: “He was in debt and he stupidly became involved in this.”


The court heard Bennett, who lives at Brae Farm in Strathaven, has previous convictions for low-level drug offences in 1999 and for possessing cocaine.
Sheriff Maxwell Hendry granted the Crown motion to seize the £3,940 as proceeds of crime.


Jailing Bennett for 15 months, the sheriff told him: “You don’t have the worst of records and in many ways your case is sad one. You became willingly and knowingly involved in what you were doing and that was the supply of a significant amount of a Class B drug.”