Jersey Unreported Judgments

Superior Number Sentencing - drugs - importation - Class A

[2024]JRC004

Royal Court

(Samedi)

4 January 2024

The Attorney General

-v-

Andrew Kyriakou

Sentencing by the Superior Number of the Royal Court, following a guilty plea to the following charge:

Age:  55.

Plea: Guilty. 

Details of Offence:

On 12 July 2023, the Defendant was stopped at Elizabeth Terminal on arrival into Jersey on the Condor Liberation.  The Defendant stated he had no baggage and planned to be in the Island for one day and night. He then showed the Customs Officer a booking confirmation for a flight to London Gatwick, scheduled for that evening.  The Defendant confirmed that he had nothing to declare.

Scans of the Defendant's mobile phone and jacket gave positive indications for cocaine.  The Defendant was then searched and nothing of a prohibited or restricted nature was found.  He was transported to Jersey General Hospital where an x-ray showed a package in the Defendant's lower bowel.  The following day, the Defendant produced a cling film wrapped package, the contents of which were 57.36 grams of cocaine with a purity of 82%.  The estimated street value of the cocaine was between £7,000 and £12,800.

In interview, the Defendant admitted to concealing a controlled drug.  He stated the cocaine was for the personal use of a Jersey recipient, who was not a drug dealer, and that he had been paid £300 up front with a further £2,000 to be paid on receipt of the cocaine in Jersey.  

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty plea

Previous Convictions:

Twelve previous convictions, including ten drug related convictions between 1993 and 2017.  No previous convictions for drug trafficking.

Conclusions:

Confiscation proceedings to be postponed.

Forfeiture and destruction of the drugs seized sought once confiscation is concluded.

No application for costs

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Confiscation postponed.

Forfeiture and destruction of the drugs postponed until conclusion of confiscation.

Ms C. L. G. Carvalho, Crown Advocate.

Advocate A. E. Binnie for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE deputy BAILIFF:

1.        Andrew Kyriakou, you are 55 years old and from London.  You have appeared before the English Courts on several occasions, although not for some years and not for an offence such as this, namely drug trafficking.  The Probation Officer notes that your previous offending is largely a consequence of drug use.

2.        For some years you have been a user of cocaine, and you say, and the Crown do not challenge your assertion, that earlier last year you had accrued a gambling debt of £2,000 and, in consequence, agreed to import a significant quantity of cocaine into Jersey.  This you did, arranging a day trip to the island on 12 July 2023.  You arrived by boat and had a plane ticket booked for your intended return that evening.  You were stopped by customs officers on arrival and gave a false account about a plan to meet friends here but you were unable to say where you were to meet them.  Scans of your mobile telephone and jacket revealed positive indications for the presence of cocaine.  The following day, you produced a quantity of cocaine that you had concealed internally weighing 57.36 grams with a high purity (82%), and a street value of between £7,000 and £12,800.  The cocaine would have had higher value had it been adulterated (or cut) two or three times before distribution in the island.

3.        In interview you made admissions, saying that you had been paid £300 in advance to import these drugs into Jersey, and were to receive a further £2,000 upon safe delivery to the recipient.

4.        To your credit, you pleaded guilty at the first opportunity on the 14 July, just two days after you committed this offence.  Accordingly, you will receive full credit for your plea of guilty.

5.        We have read the Pre-Sentence Report and the letters from you, your wife, your sister and a friend.  We know that as a consequence of your offending your wife and children have been threatened and their home has been ransacked.  Regrettably such an occurrence is an all too common consequence of involvement in this sort of offence and does not, in our judgment, amount to mitigation.  It is simply part and parcel of the offending that you chose to involve yourself in.

6.        The Crown suggests a starting point, in accordance with the case of Rimmer v AG [2001] JLR 373, of 10 years imprisonment.  Your counsel suggest a starting point of approximately 9 years imprisonment.

7.        Having regard to the high purity of the drugs, your role and the weight of the drugs involved, we fix the starting point as 9½ years' imprisonment.

8.        We postpone the destruction and forfeiture order sought in relation to the drugs.  In respect of confiscation, we have made various orders and postpone the matter for further directions on 5 April 2024.

9.        The sentence we impose, having regard to all the circumstances of this case, is 6 years and 4 months' imprisonment.

Authorities

Rimmer v AG [2001] JLR 373. 

Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978

Customs and Excise (Jersey) Law 1999

Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999

Whitehouse v AG 2002/134

AG v Goodwin [2016] JRC 165

AG v Mkatapa [2020] JRC 037

AG v Goncalves [2022] JRC 097

AG v Delduca [2023] JRC 185