A man claimed he turned to selling cannabis after the Covid-19 vaccination centre he worked in closed down.

Luke Skimins made the excuse as he appeared for sentencing at Glasgow Sheriff Court last week.

The depute fiscal told the court that police attention was drawn to Skimins’ car at around 3pm on December 22, 2021. 

Cops approached the vehicle and smelled a strong stench of cannabis. 

Skimins, from Bishopbriggs, told them: “I have got cannabis.

“It’s in that tub.”

Officers found a white tub in the rear of the vehicle that contained 49.1g of cannabis. 

He was cautioned and charged but made no reply. 

The court heard he had committed another similar offence within six months of this offence but had otherwise not been in trouble before. 

His defence brief told the court the 21-year-old had briefly “gone off the rails” during that six-month period. 

He was working as a vaccinator in a Covid-19 vaccine centre and when his work dried up when the centre closed he turned to drug dealing because “he was struggling for money”. 

The lawyer said her client still smokes one joint a day at night to help him sleep. 

She added: “This is a lot better than he was.

“He is not a stupid man, he is very well aware of the seriousness of the supply element.”

Sheriff Vincent Lunny said: “You are 21 and you have got choices in front of you that a lot of people do not have. 

“I am assuming that this is a place you do not want to come back to for the rest of your life because a lot of people do, repeatedly. 

“Dealing drugs is a shortcut to prison.”

Skimins was placed on a community payback order and told he must carry out 75 hours of unpaid work within 12 months.