SENTENCING STATEMENTS

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HMA v Michael Beaton & Dylan John Dunlop

Feb 16, 2024

At the High Court in Edinburgh today, Lord Ericht jailed Michael Beaton and Dylan John Dunlop for their involvement in dealing class A drugs. The conviction included a serious organised crime aggravation. Beaton received a sentence of 5 years & 219 days. Dunlop was handed a sentence of 3 years & 4 months. Beaton received an additional consecutive sentence of 4 months for assaulting police officers.

On sentencing, Lord Ericht told Michael Beaton:

“You have pled guilty by sec 76 indictment to two charges of being concerned in the supply of a class A drug under sec 4(3)(b) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, charge 1 being in relation to Diamorphine and charge 2 Cocaine. Both charges include a serious organised crime aggravation.

Together with your co-accused Dylan John Dunlop you were involved for a period of around 9 weeks in the dealing of cocaine and diamorphine, converting cocaine powder to crack cocaine and carrying out local drug-dealing. The total value of all drugs recovered is between £26,330 and £49,125.

You have also pled guilty to culpably and recklessly throwing a quantity of powder containing Cocaine at police officers, striking one and causing him and 3 other officers to ingest the powder, and also guilty to assaulting a police officer in the execution of his duty under the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, Section 90(1)(a).

I have given careful consideration to the Criminal Justice Social Work Report and to everything that has been said on your behalf today.

I shall impose a cumulo sentence covering both of the drugs charges, that is charges 1 and 2.

You have a record of previous convictions for a variety of offences stretching back to 2013. You have previous convictions for drug dealing. In particular you have two previous convictions under sec 4(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 in respect of class A drugs. In 2019 you were imprisoned for 18 months in respect of the supply of diamorphine. In 2021 you were imprisoned for two years in respect of the supply of diamorphine and cocaine. The effect of these two convictions is that you are subject to the minimum sentence provision in section 205B of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.

In view of the length of the minimum sentence I shall not impose an additional period of imprisonment in respect of the aggravation.

The minimum sentence is 7 years. Had it not been for your early plea, I would have sentenced you to that minimum sentence. However, because of your early plea, the sentence will be reduced under sec 196 (2) of the 1995 Act to five years two hundred and nineteen days.

I shall impose a cumulo sentence covering both of the police officer charges, that is charges 3 and 4.

When officers entered the premises to execute a search warrant, you ran towards them and threw a block of compressed powder containing cocaine. The block hit an officer in the face, causing the powder to go into the air and on the officers and their clothing. Officers ingested some of the powder whilst it was in the air.

This sort of attack on police officers will not be tolerated.

Had it not been for your early plea, I would have sentenced you to a period of imprisonment of six months. However, because of your early plea, the sentence will be four months.

These sentences are consecutive and backdated to 20 June 2023.”

Lord Ericht told Dylan John Dunlop:

“You have pled guilty by sec 76 indictment to the same charges of being concerned in the supply of diamorphine and cocaine as Michael Beaton. In addition to the serious organised crime aggravations, both charges include a bail aggravation

I have taken into account the Criminal Justice Social Work Report and what your counsel has said on your behalf.

You have convictions relating to the supply of Diamorphine and cocaine but the minimum sentence provision does not apply to you.

I shall impose a cumulo sentence covering both of the drugs charges, that is charges 1 and 2.

Had it not been for your early plea, I would have sentenced you to a period of imprisonment of 5 years, of which one and a half months would have been attributable to the serious organised crime aggravations and one and a half months would have been attributable to the bail aggravations. However, because of your early plea, the sentence will be 3 years and 4 months, of which one month is attributable to the serious organised crime aggravation and one month to the bail aggravation.

You have spent 7 days on remand prior to your conviction on 21 December 2023 so to take account of this the sentence is backdated by a further 7 days to 14 December 2023.”

16 February 2024