52.
4 pages.
ROYAL COURT
(Samedi Division)
16th March 1998
Before: F.C. Hamon, Esq., Deputy Bailiff, and
Jurats Myles, Gruchy, Le Ruez, Vibert, Herbert,
de Veulle,
Quérée, Le Brocq, and Bullen.
The Attorney General
-v-
John Jason Muat.
Sentencing by the Superior
Number of the Royal Court, to which the accused was remanded by the Inferior
Number on 6th February, 1998, following a guilty plea to;
1
count of: being
knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the
importation of a controlled drug, contrary to Article 77 (b) of the Customs and
Excise (General Provisions) [Jersey] Law, 1972.
Count
1: diamorphine (heroin).
Age: 28
Details of Offence:
13.9g of heroin 28% purity by
weight. Value £2,980 if sold
at £200 per g. £4,470
if sold at 300 per g. National
average = 45% by weight.
Details
of Mitigation:
Remorse. Addict. Life spiralling down. Pressure as son handicapped with life
expectancy of 5 years. Original
said for personal use but then retracted and therefore avoided a Newton
hearing.
Previous
Convictions:
1 for violence. 1 for fraud. 11 for theft. 1 for disorder. 14 miscellaneous.
Conclusions:
6 years imprisonment. Starting point 8 years, Allow 2 years for mitigation.
Sentence
and Observations of the Court:
5 years’ imprisonment.
No reduction in starting
point but reduction for avoiding a Newton hearing.
A.J.N. Dessain, Esq., Crown Advocate,
Advocate R.G.Morris for the
accused.
JUDGMENT
THE DEPUTY
BAILIFF: John Jason Muat was stopped by Customs Officers on the 22nd
October 1997, at the Elizabeth Harbour Terminal. He told Customs Officers that
he was travelling with his mother Mary Mason (née Burn) and that he had
come to Jersey to look for work as
he had a handicapped son in Liverpool to support.
He
later admitted that the name that he had given was false; his real name of course was Muat; the
lady was not his mother but apparently a woman living in the same street in
Liverpool and his joint travel ticket was booked in the false name of J.J. Rem, and
was for return on the 25th October at 11.10.am.
Eventually
he handed a small package to Customs Officer Noel which he said contained
heroin. When this was confirmed x-rays of his body were taken and after a
period of time he managed to pass four packages which on examination after they
had been thoroughly washed (this is a thoroughly unpleasant business) were
found to contain in all 14.90grams of diamorphine heroin with a value of
£2,900 per gram if sold by the gram at £200 per gram.
Of
course heroin is normally purchased in score bags containing one tenth of a
gram which sell at £300 per gram.
If sold in this way then its value would have been £4,470. Each score bag is sufficient to provide
up to three individual doses depending on the tolerance of the user, and of
course there was only 28% purity by weight in this supply. Recent experience has shown
that score bags are being sold significantly under weight, and that of course
merely reflects the element of greed at every level of drug dealing,
but
there was probably sufficient for 149 score bags to be made from this supply.
We
must of course, have regard to the Court of Appeal’s judgment in Gregory,
(!5th January 1997) Jersey Unreported CofA, which has apparently
created two offences, differently punishable. These are simple or personal use
importation, and importation with intent to supply. Fortunately Muat does not now claim -
although he did originally - that these drugs were for his personal use. It is very difficult to understand
how he could have claimed that.
He
is, he says, a heroin addict, but to bring this amount of heroin into Jersey
- after the fabric of lies had been
unravelled - for a period of three days, would in our view, not have made the task
of the prosecution too difficult (if there had been a need for a Newton
hearing) to prove commercial use to the criminal standard.
Fortunately
we do not have to follow the difficult pass into which the judgment in Gregory
might have led us, and for that Muat deserves some credit.
In
the landmark decision of Campbell, Molloy, MacKenzie -v- A.G, (1995) JLR
136 CofA, the Court of Appeal said
this, talking of mounting
acquisitive crime in the United Kingdom:
“There
is as yet no firm evidence that heroin abuse is generating such crime in
Jersey, but we accept that it has the potential to do so. The Attorney General
invited us to consider how such acquisitive crime, particularly burglaries and
muggings, might adversely affect the quality of life in Jersey”.
That
was in April 1995. Three years
later we are very much at the stage where heroin - based crime has led to armed
robbery and mutilation, and where heroin abuse has led to death on more than one occasion.
We
do not have the information that perhaps we should have: how did a man who has
worked for only fourteen months in his 28 years of life acquire this amount of heroin? How did he pay for his tickets? Who
was the lady who accompanied him in the guise of his mother? Where was he going to stay in
Jersey? And perhaps the great
imponderable: Was he going to meet someone when he had hopefully passed through
our extremely vigilant Customs Authorities?
None
of these questions will ever be answered, and they need not concern us in
sentencing. Mr Morris has
said all that he could. We have
read the references with care and we acknowledge the personal tragedy of this
young man’s handicapped child and the fact that his mother died
recently. Mr Morris asks us
to reduce by way of mitigation the term of imprisonment from 6 years to 5 on
the basis of a lower starting point. We feel quite unable to lower the starting
point from the 8 years suggested by the Crown.
The
Crown however, allowed nothing for the guilty plea, but the saving of a Newton
hearing must be of some value, and the plea of guilty - although of small value
- we feel should be acknowledged, but this decision is that of a majority of
the Jurats.
Will you stand up please, you are now sentenced to
five years imprisonment. We
have ordered destruction of the drugs.
Authorities.
Gregory -v- A.G
(15th January 1997) Jersey Unreported CofA
Campbell, Molloy, MacKenzie (1995) JLR 136 CofA