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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Gordonstoun Drug-Story Cash Forfeited In Court Fine Raymond Shewan Press & Journal, Aberdeen Friday 16 Jan 2004 The teenage son of Castaway author Lucy Irvine yesterday forfeited the four-figure sum he made from selling his story about his involvement with drug-dealing at Gordonstoun to two national newspapers. Eighteen-year-old Robert Irvine appeared for sentence at Elgin Sheriff Court after admitting being concerned in the supply of cannabis at the public school in Moray last year. Sheriff Ian Cameron told him that under normal circumstances he would have imposed a fine of £400, but increased it to £1,750 after being told that Irvine had been paid £1,350 for articles in two tabloid newspapers following his expulsion from Gordonstoun. The size of the penalty came as a shock to Irvine, who prefers to be known as Magnus rather than Robert. Outside the court he said: "It's quite a hefty fine and I feel it's rather harsh." Referring to the fact that the sheriff had taken the newspaper payments into consideration, he added: "It bothers me that they have taken the money back." An earlier hearing was told that staff at Gordonstoun became suspicious when a package addressed to Irvine arrived at the school last January. They confronted him but he refused to open the package, adding to their suspicions that it might contain drugs. When it was finally opened it was found to contain around 7g of cannabis. Irvine refused to tell police how he had obtained the drugs but said he had met a supplier in an internet chatroom. Yesterday, fiscal depute Geoff Main said Irvine had told police he was not prepared to name the person for whom the cannabis was intended, claiming it was a matter of honour. Defence solicitor Jim McKay told the court that his instructions were that the cannabis had been obtained for a member of Irvine's family. After the case, Irvine revealed he had acted as an agent for his father, businessman Jack Paris, who lives in South Africa, and had intended to post the drugs on to him. Asked if his father was unable to obtain cannabis for himself in South Africa, Irvine replied: "Yes, but it's not as good quality as the cannabis that can be procured here." Irvine, who has been working as a £140-a-week night porter at a youth hostel in Edinburgh since being kicked out of Gordonstoun, hopes his father will help him pay the fine. He said his mother, who lives on the west coast of Scotland, did not have much money and was unlikely to be able to help him financially, although she had been very supportive of him over the drugs case. Irvine said he had worked hard to get to Gordonstoun and held no grudges against the school about being expelled. "Gordonstoun is a very good school and I don't hold any animosity towards the school," he said. "It is not their fault." Irvine, who was ordered to pay his fine at £30 a week, said he had used cannabis during his years at Gordonstoun but had never smoked at the school. The court heard that as well as working in the youth hostel, Irvine, whose address was given as Rowan Cottage, Tanera Mhor, Achiltibuie, Ullapool, was continuing to study in the hope of going to university to study electronic music. Mr McKay told the court that the £1,350 which Irvine had been paid for his story - £850 by one newspaper and £500 by another - had been swallowed up by general living expenses. Irvine's mother wrote the best-selling novel, Castaway, after answering an advertisement from a publisher to spend a year on a desert island with him as his "wife". --=======1D809AF=======--
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