Jersey Unreported Judgments

 2002/3

ROYAL COURT

(Samedi Division)

 

10^th January 2002

 

 

The Attorney General

-v-

Tracey Jayne Conquer

 

Sentencing by the Superior Number of the Royal Court, to which the accused was remanded by the Inferior Number on 14th December, 2001, 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 61 (2)(b) of the Customs and Excise (Jersey) Law 1999: Count 1: diamorphine.

 

 

Age:     28.

 

Plea:    Guilty.

 

Details of Offence:

Two packages inside vagina 16.41 grams and 714 milligrams respectively.  Not co-operative, guilty plea but no alternative, street value £5,000 to £8,000.

 

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty plea, maintained some of heroin for personal use.  28 years' old, daughter, no previous for drugs.  Came to Jersey on day trip with £2.49 in her pocket, prostitute, poor background, violent parent and sibling and boyfriend.

 

Previous Convictions:

None for drugs, several sexual and theft offences. 

 

Conclusions:

Count 1:

6 years' imprisonment. (starting point: 8 years.)

 

 

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Count 1:

5 years' imprisonment. (starting point: 7 years.)

 

Relatively small commercial quantity; accepted that small amount for personal use.

 

N.M. Santos Costa, Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate A.J.D. Winchester for the accused.

 

 

 

JUDGMENT

 

 

THE commissioner:

1.        Conquer was stopped after her arrival from Weymouth on the Condor Express car ferry.  She denied carrying drugs and when questioned demanded the presence of a Jurat in order to exercise her right of appeal against the search of her person by customs officers.  Eventually, after a series of denials, she admitted at the General Hospital that she had a package which she believed contained heroin inside her vagina.  After x rays were taken she was shown to be carrying a number of foreign objects inside her abdomen.  Eventually, as we have heard, she was shown to have had inside her 16.41 grams of heroin, with an average of 52% by weight of diamorphine and 714 milligrams of heroin with an average of 25% by weight of diamorphine.

2.        When she was charged by Centenier Allen, she pleaded guilty to the charge that we are dealing with today.  In passing, we note that the heroin seized has a total street value in Jersey of between £5,137 and £7,705.  That is a relatively small commercial quantity.  She has been in custody since the 25^th October, 2001, and pleaded guilty on each occasion when she appeared before the Magistrate's Court. 

3.        Conquer is 28 years' old and has numerous previous convictions, but mainly for theft.  She eventually entered a plea of guilty, but, in our view, she had very little choice, as the drugs were carried inside her body.  We must say that we do not believe she was coming to Jersey to look for work.  She was, in our view, carrying drugs for reward and this was a commercial importation.  Because of her drug addiction the Court accepts that a small amount of the heroin may have been for her own use. 

4.        We have been assisted by a letter handed to us by Advocate Winchester from the treatment director of Providence Projects, a non-profit making organisation based in Bournemouth.  The director says that when she was assessed she was taking over one gram of heroin a day, together with one to six bottles of cider, crack cocaine and a few joints of hashish at night and a variety of pills, as and when she could get hold of them.  He explains that she was funding her £400 a week habit by working as a prostitute. 

5.        We are grateful to Advocate Winchester who is prepared to accept that while part of the drugs were for her own use, part were clearly not.  We accept that the remarks made by her at the hospital may well not have had the interpretation placed upon them by the Crown.

6.        We are, after consideration, prepared to accept Advocate Winchester's suggestion that we take the lower part of the band set out by the Court of Appeal in Rimmer, Lusk and Bade (19^th July 2001) Jersey Unreported CofA; [2001/148].  Taking into account all the mitigation available which has been more than adequately covered by Advocate Santos Costa, we can follow the Crown's conclusions, but we are going to reduce the sentence by the one year by making a reduction in the starting point, as suggested by Advocate Winchester.  So, Conquer, we are sentencing you to five years' imprisonment and we order the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs.     

 

Authorities

Campbell and ors -v- AG (1995) JLR 136 CofA.

Kenward -v- AG (14^th July 2000) Jersey Unreported CofA; [2000/137].

Rimmer, Lusk and Bade -v- AG (19^th July 2001) Jersey Unreported CofA; [2001/148].