A POSTMAN involved in smuggling a package containing more than 1,000 ecstasy pills with a street value of up to £25,000 has been jailed for six and a half years.
The Royal Court heard that Graham Sinclair Benson-Dias (33) knew which package to look out for and, instead of delivering it to the address on the package, handed it over to his associate, Callum Robert Hunt (29).
However, the operation was thwarted as Customs officials had already placed a tracker in the package. Hunt and Benson-Dias were arrested at their homes later that day.
As well as the 1,002 pink ecstasy tablets – which had a Super Mario Brothers emblem embossed on them – found in the package, Hunt was subsequently caught with 3kg of cannabis resin with a street value of between £40,000 and £58,000, while Benson-Dias had 28g of MDMA, with an estimated street value of £2,800.
The pair both admitted one count of importation and one count of possession with intent to supply. Hunt admitted a further three charges of drug possession.
Appearing yesterday before the Superior Number of the Royal Court – which only convenes for the most serious cases – Benson-Dias was jailed for six and a half years, while Hunt was imprisoned for six years.
Crown Advocate Richard Pedley, prosecuting, told the court that the men were arrested on 11 October 2018 after Benson-Dias, who was working as a postman at the time of the offence, intercepted the package. He did not deliver the package to the address labelled, instead giving it to Hunt later that day at a meeting near St Mary’s Country Inn.
In his first interview, Benson-Dias denied ordering the drugs and said that he felt ‘pressured’ to deliver the package, while Hunt answered ‘no comment’ when questioned about the tablets.
The pair were originally released without charge in 2018, and both left the Island in the following months. However, an arrest warrant was issued for them when they failed to return for interview and they were brought back to the Island last summer.
Advocate Jeremy Heywood, defending Benson-Dias, argued that a lower sentence should be imposed on the basis that the defendant entered a guilty plea during an indictment at the Royal Court and that he was co-operative throughout.
He told the court that Benson-Dias had been clean from drugs or alcohol since 2019 and said that the defendant had a supportive partner, a new child and had taken ‘great steps to turn his life around’.
He added that Benson-Dias’ prior drugs convictions, which occurred in 2008, were ‘out of character at a time of great stress’.
Advocate James Bell, defending Hunt, told the court that the defendant thought the package contained money and did not expect it to contain drugs.
He said that Hunt should have ‘full credit’ for a guilty plea and that none of his previous convictions, which included being imprisoned in the Island for an armed robbery charge in 2014, should be taken into consideration.
He added that ‘while the offence has not changed, the man appearing before you has changed’. This comment alluded to the fact that Hunt had gained employment and rekindled his relationship with his family before being arrested and brought back to the Island.
Delivering the court’s sentence, the Bailiff, Timothy Le Cocq, presiding, said that while the pair were both ‘equally involved’ in the importation of the drug, Benson-Dias had misused his ‘position of trust as a postal employee’.
Jurats Jerry Ramsden, Robert Christensen and Karen Le Cornu were sitting.
