Woman who brought heroin into isles faces prison term
A woman who played a key role in smuggling heroin into Shetland faces a prison sentence following her appearance at Lerwick Sheriff Court today.
Trudy Thomson, 28, who lived in Gilbertson Road, Lerwick, got packages of heroin posted to her mother’s house at Thistle Court in Virkie where she went to pick them up for a dealer. Once the drugs had been sold she helped launder the money by paying it into a bank account.
Appearing from custody, she admitted being concerned in the supply of diamorphine at Virkie and at her home in Lerwick between 1st May and 28th June last year and failing to turn up for her previous court date on Wednesday last week.
She was caught in June following a controlled delivery of a package containing 28.6 grams of heroin worth around £4,000 to Thomson’s mother’s house, which she picked up.
Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie told the court she had done the same thing on at least eight other occasions. He said: “She played a significant role in the introduction of the drugs to the islands and facilitating the laundering of the proceeds of the sale, although it’s accepted that she wasn’t involved in the sale.”
Seeking her liberty until sentencing, her defence agent Tommy Allan said Thomson was “a vulnerable woman who has been completely taken advantage of by people that she cared about and that should have done better by her”.
However, Mr MacKenzie took issue to that description. He said she actually played a significant role in a fairly sophisticated drugs operation. “She knew fine well what she was doing. This is someone who simply blinded themselves to what was going on.”
It emerged Thomson had moved to Hull while on bail without informing the authorities. Mr MacKenzie said she had then told “a host of cock and bull stories” about why she had been unable to attend court.
She was refused further bail while a social inquiry report is being compiled because of concerns that she would simply not turn up for sentencing on 18th April.
Meanwhile a Dumfries man was released on bail at the court today after denying that he had assaulted a woman in Virkie yesterday.
Paul Scott Millar, 30, of Kedar Bank, Mouswald, will face trial on 14th June after pleading not guilty to kicking the woman and striking her on the face at a house in Horseshoe Close, Virkie.
