AN INVERKEITHING man has been jailed for 29 months after he and his partner appeared in court on drug-dealing offences.

Greg Reedy, 34, and Hayley Coleman, 31, of Spittalfield Crescent, appeared together at Dunfermline Sheriff Court yesterday (Wednesday).

Coleman had previously admitted that at their address between November 24 and December 6 last year, she was concerned in the supply of amphetamine while Reedy, 34, admitted that between November 24 and December 7 last year, he was concerned in the supply of diamorphine.

Before sentencing, Sheriff Alastair Brown told the pair that those who deal with drugs could not be expected to be dealt with sympathetically.

"Those who deal in class A drugs, in particular heroin, can expect to go to prison," he said. "That is what the guidance teaches us and since, according to the last figures I saw, people are dying in Fife at a rate of about one a week as a result of drugs, and heroin plays a large part in that.

"It seems to be to be entirely appropriate that it should be dealt with seriously."

He sentenced Coleman to a community payback order requiring her to do 240 hours of unpaid work. He told her: "Given your childcare responsibilities, I will allow nine months for that to be completed."

Sheriff Brown told Reedy he had a previous conviction for dealing in drugs and sentenced him to 29 months' imprisonment. The sentence will be backdated to November 12 when he was remanded in custody.

At an earlier hearing, depute fiscal Claire Bremner said the offences came to light after a young child took ill at the couple’s home.

Coleman's solicitor, Alexander Flett, said his client was the sole carer of the couple's child.

"She has not been involved in this kind of behaviour before," he said. "She lost her employment because of the publicity given to this case."

Solicitor Gwen Haggerty, solicitor for Reedy, said her client recognised that there was an "inevitability" as to what was to happen to him.

"He is someone who, despite having a lengthy schedule of convictions, he came late in life to involvement in this type of offending," she said. "The reason he became involved and addicted to drugs is during a sentence he served which was 54 months from 2011; he suffered an injury to his back while in custody.

"He then became addicted to opiates and thereafter moved onto heroin misuse. It is not something he has been entrenched in for a number of years."