Had cannabis for '˜self-medicating'
A cleaner caught with cannabis worth over £500 as he walked though Ballymoney told police: 'I'm definitely not a dealer, I have Crohn's disease and I buy two ounces in bulk'.
William Charles Gage (40), of Raceview Drive, had the offence detected at Ballymena Road on April 23. At Coleraine Magistrates Court he was fined £500 after pleading guilty to two charges of possession of the Class B drug. He had 58 grammes of cannabis worth £582 and in a follow up search at his home police found another amount of the drug worth £132. A defence lawyer said Gage was “self-medicating” for Crohn’s disease.
He said Gage had stopped taking cannabis “and then, stupidly, went and started using it again”.