TWO county drug dealers have been warned that they face a jail sentence if they fail to carry out unpaid work in the community.

Paul Carnegie and Jason McNamara were caught supplying Class A drugs when police raided the former’s property in Musselburgh in June 2022.

Carnegie, of Park Gardens, was caught supplying others with heroin and cocaine between April 8 and June 14, 2022. McNamara, of James Street, Musselburgh, admitted to supplying a quantity of heroin to others on the single date of June 14, 2022.

Both men pleaded guilty to the charges when they appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year and sentence had been deferred for the preparation of social work reports.

The pair returned to the dock on Monday, where Sheriff Christopher Dickson imposed community-based orders.

Lawyer Peter Barr told the court his client Carnegie had been making progress in relation to his substance misuse and he would “welcome the support of the social work department”.

Mr Barr added that his “involvement is at the lower end of the scale” and that he did “accept full responsibility” for his offending.

The court was told that Carnegie, 52, had previous convictions, including one of a similar nature, but he was now back with his partner and was “making progress with his personal life”.

Melissa Virtue, representing 50-year-old McNamara, said her client also had analogous convictions but had pleaded guilty to an amended charge of supplying Class A drugs on a single date.

Ms Virtue said he had been “clean of drugs for the past five months” and a jail sentence would most likely see “a significant backslide” to his progress.

Sheriff Dickson warned the pair that any breach of their sentence would see them sent to prison.

Carnegie was ordered to carry out the maximum of 300 hours of unpaid work, with the sheriff saying that the discount to his sentence from pleading guilty was not being sent to prison.

McNamara was given some discount by the sheriff and he was sentenced to complete 250 hours of unpaid work.