Greenock drugs gang kingpin's 'period of reflection'

Docherty and associates Ian Millar, Brendan Gillan, Daniel Gillan and Christopher McKellar were involved in a sophisticated serious organised crime operation that not only supplied drugs but also manufactured them.

The five-man gang had been due to be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday but this had to be postponed while outstanding crime prevention orders are prepared for three of the cohort.

Anthony Graham KC said the 37-year-old Docherty's life had been 'peppered with continuous contact with the drugs environment', and he had contacts with people in the drugs trade 'because he was a user'.

Mr Graham told the court that Docherty, who is expected to receive a lengthy jail term, has had 'a period of reflection as to his involvement and the consequences of that on his nearest and dearest and others in society'.

The organised crime group - which made hundreds of thousands of pounds - was taken down as part of a major Europe-wide investigation into the EncroChat encrypted messaging service.

Serious crime prevention orders to impose binding conditions on individuals aimed at stopping further offending are still outstanding in the case.

Docherty led the operation during the first Covid lockdown in 2020 when he no longer had legitimate work available to him, the court heard.

'The shop', on Oxford Road in Greenock's Larkfield estate, was also referred to as 'the trap' (Image: NQ)

Second-in-command Ian Millar, who is Docherty's brother-in-law, is 'far from a stupid individual' but 'does have a history of offending', the court was told.

Millar, 39, was jailed for 18 months in October last year for separate matters, and was said to be 'determined to not get involved again' once he is liberated from his upcoming sentence.

READ MORE: Lee Docherty drugs gang smashed in Europe-wide probe flooded Inverclyde with dope

First offender Brendan Gillan, 32, who played a key role in the scheme along with his 60-year-old father, Daniel, was said to have 'conducted himself lawfully and contributed to society' in the lead-up to the nine-month period of offending four years ago.

The drugs gang plied the streets of Inverclyde with cocaine, heroin, cannabis and etizolam tablets (Image: Crown Office)

Thomas Ross KC, representing Gillan Jnr, said his client - who spoke of 'fronting a drugs empire' - was previously employed at the former McKechnie Jess factory in Greenock that was destroyed by a fire in 2017 and his behaviour turned after losing his job.

Mr Ross said: "This offending period [between March and December 2020] very much does not represent his adult life which, until then, was positive.

"The decision to become involved was his decision and he has shown considerable remorse. It came at a time when he was vulnerable to temptation because he was skint and depressed but he made the wrong decision and he will continue to pay for it.

READ MORE: 'An inside person in every top crime group': How Greenock drugs gang was toppled

"He is committed to getting out of prison as quickly as possible and never returning to it."

Mark Moir KC, representing Daniel Gillan, said 'he is an intelligent man' who studied accountancy and business law at Strathclyde University before 'things went off the rails' in the late 1980s when he began taking drugs.

Meanwhile, a solicitor for Christopher McKellar claimed that the 44-year-old Glasgow man - who admitted to assisting with the couriering of pills and powder between March and June 2020 - has been 'at pains to try and distinguish his involvement from others on the indictment'.

The lawyer said that although the period of his involvement was restricted to just three months, and his contact was limited with other gang members, 'he was involved and he recognises that he requires to be punished'.

Lord Mulholland deferred sentence on all five men until April 4, with confiscation hearings also set to take place at the High Court in Edinburgh in May.