A 39-YEAR-OLD man found in possession of almost £5,000 worth of heroin and nearly £400 in cash after a vehicle was stopped in Hawick has avoided a prison sentence.

Stuart Ogilvie pleaded guilty at Jedburgh Sheriff Court to being concerned in the supply of a class A drug.

But he insisted he only had that amount of drugs because at the time he was a heavy heroin user and shared the drug with a group of friends.

Defence lawyer Mat Patrick said that while his client admitted supplying the drug it was not a drug dealing case and he was not profiting financially from it.

The solicitor added that Ogilvie had managed to wean himself off that addiction only to replace it with an addiction for alcohol.

Mr Patrick also pointed out the offence happened almost three years ago. Prosecutor India McLean said that police officers stopped a vehicle in Hawick at 2.30pm on October 29, 2021, and Ogilvie was in the car with two others.

He was searched and four bags of brown powder were found on him which turned out to be 31 grammes of heroin, with a street value of £4,888, as well as £373 in cash.

Sheriff David Clapham told him that the quantity involved in a class A drug could easily have resulted in him being sent to prison.

Instead Ogilvie, formerly of Chay Blyth Place, Hawick, and now living at Beech Avenue, Galashiels, was given a community payback order with 190 hours of unpaid work to be carried out as an alternative to custody.