Appellant: MC McKenzie; Beaumont and Co

Respondent: Hughes AD; Crown Agent

9 May 2012

[1] On the 28 December 2011 the appellant, who is aged 25, pled guilty at a first diet at Dumfries Sheriff Court to concern in the supply of Cannabis. On 24 January 2012 he was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment, discounted from 12 months but including 3 months for a bail contravention. That gave the appellant an earliest release date which the court has been told was 8 June 2012.

[2] The circumstances of the offence were that the appellant had been stopped on 3 April 2011 on the A74(M) and found to be in possession of 140 gms of Cannabis, with a retail value of about £1,350. The Crown accepted that the supply was of a social, rather than a strictly commercial, type involving the purchase, with pooled cash of £600, of a bulk quantity of the drug for distribution to friends. The appellant had travelled to Liverpool from Edinburgh to source a cheaper supply than was available locally.

[3] The appellant's background is that he appears to have had a settled childhood, leaving school at 16 with 7 standard grades. He has worked as an electrician since then. He lives with his mother and has a partner and a young child. The appellant has two previous convictions, one in 2003 for possession of a knife in public, which attracted a fine of £120, and a second in 2006 for assault, which resulted in a £450 fine. However, for reasons which are not immediately clear, the appellant has recently been in significant and repeated trouble. On 19 March 2012 he was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for a further assault, whilst on bail, and this pushed his earliest release date on to 22 June 2012. The court has also been advised that he has been found guilty of further charges of breach of the peace and vandalism. Sentence has been deferred by the sheriff in respect of these matters until the 8 June 2012, which was the original earliest release date.

[4] It is apparent from these facts that, although the appellant has had a reasonably stable lifestyle and lacked a significant criminal record until recently, in the last 12 months or thereby he has appeared on three separate petitions dealing with a variety of different offences. It was submitted that, having regard to the nature of the supply in this case, the sentence imposed by the sheriff at Dumfries was excessive. However, having regard to the quantity of Cannabis found and the surrounding circumstances regarding the appellant's recent upsurge in offending, the court does not consider it can classify the sentence in those terms and this appeal is accordingly refused.

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