A sheriff heard this week how police Officers searching the home of a Fort William man found cannabis plants growing in a cupboard. Craig Mitchell Hulston, of Campbell Court in the town’s Plantation area, had previously pleaded guilty to two offences by letter. Hulston, 53, had admitted to producing cannabis at his home on October 27 last year and to being in possession of cannabis on the same date. Procurator Fiscal David Morton told Fort William Sheriff Court that police of- ficers attending a nearby road trafic collision had detected a strong smell of cannabis from both the front and rear of the property.
The Officers had some relevant intelligence and so a search warrant was obtained. ‘The Officers attended the property and the accused freely admitted cannabis cultivation, with plants growing in a cupboard in the hallway’, explained Mr Morton. ‘A systematic search took place. The accused told Officers he was growing the plants for his own use. There were also various other small amounts of cannabis discovered during the search.’ Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald deferred sentence until September 11 for a criminal justice social work report and for further clarification of the values of the drugs involved.