A drug mule who was caught at an Edinburgh train station with a £14,000 haul of cocaine and heroin has escaped a jail sentence.
Tia Tyndale transported a black tote bag containing the Class A drugs from Birmingham but was snared by police who were waiting on her at Edinburgh’s Waverley station following a tip off.
Tyndale claimed she was forced to bring the consignment to Scotland last March in a bid to pay off crippling rent arrears.
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The 23-year-old admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine when she appeared at the capital’s sheriff court last month and was back in the dock for sentencing yesterday.
Sheriff Norman McFadyen placed Tyndale on an 18 month supervision order and sentenced her to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work in the community as an alternative to custody.
The court was previously told police received a tip off Tyndale was travelling north by train with the drugs and staked out the station on March 10 last year.
The officers watched as Tyndale left by the Market Street exit at around 4.15pm before swooping and arresting her.
The court heard Tyndale, from Birmingham, told police “I’ve brought something up in my bag. I don’t know what it is.”
She was searched and the bag was found to hold a cardboard box containing 49g of cocaine said to have a street value of up to £12,000 while the 47g of heroin found was worth £1,580.
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Lawyer Cameron Tait, defending, said his client has no previous convictions and had found herself in “serious financial trouble” with rent arrears.
The solicitor said a friend suggested to Tyndale she earn cash by taking a package from Birmingham to Edinburgh as she had done it before.
Mr Tait said Tyndale didn’t look in the package and had “grown increasingly remorseful and regretted undertaking the journey” while on the train.
