An IRVINE resident is facing trial accused of dealing illegal drugs - over a haul of legal substances.

Derek Kennedy, of Victoria House, in the town’s Boyle Street, is said to have been trying to supply legal substances caffeine and paracetamol.

Prosecutors claim Kennedy, 24, believed the substances were actually the deadly class A drug heroin.

Kennedy is said to have thought they were illegal drugs, at a property in Blackstoun Oval, Paisley.

Prosecutors claim he broke the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 with his alleged actions on October 2, 2018.

The single charge against him states he “did attempt to be concerned in the supplying of paracetamol and caffeine, which [he] believed to contain, but which did not in fact contain, a controlled drug, namely Diamorphine”.

It continued, he “did thus attempt to be concerned in the supplying of a controlled drug to another or others.”

Kennedy maintains his innocence and was due to go on trial at Paisley Sheriff Court last week.

But, during a brief hearing on Friday, it emerged the case was unable to proceed to trial last week, as planned, and it had to be adjourned until later in the year.

Defence Advocate Joe Barr told Sheriff Seith Ireland that Kennedy has some unspecified difficulties and, as such, may need assistance if he is to give evidence in his own defence.

The judge then adjourned the case until April, for the trial to begin, and continued Kennedy’s bail.