A MAN is claiming in court that he was part of a “drugs club” with his friends and not a commercial dealer.
Nicholas Christopher Clyde-Smith (40) admitted earlier this year to being involved in the supply of cocaine, LSD, DMT, ecstasy and cannabis since September 2021.
But his plea was made on the basis that he only supplied the drugs to his friends, sharing and swapping them – and did not make a commercial profit.
In a previous submission, Clyde-Smith described it as “a group that might colloquially be described as a ‘drugs club’”.
He also described a “you scratch my back, I scratch your back” arrangement.
Addressing the Royal Court in a Newton hearing yesterday, in which the facts of the case are to be decided before he can be sentenced, Clyde-Smith insisted that he is not – and never has been – a drug dealer.
Advocate Stephen Baker, defending, said: “You come from a privileged background, don’t you?
“You find yourself in quite an extraordinary position.”
Clyde-Smith gave the court a detailed description of what he characterised as years of addiction – which he said started when his sister died and his marriage fell apart, but got worse during the pandemic.
“All your priorities become about cocaine. Above your family, your work… it’s cocaine first,” he explained.
He said he would take up to seven grams of cocaine a day, and described taking cocaine off his bedside table, throughout his workday, and after getting home.
“You’re in real danger, when you’re not dying, at that point. I was a man who had everything. I had businesses, things that people would dream of.
“I was not happy within myself and I was a very self-destructive person.
“It wouldn’t make any sense for me to be selling drugs for money.”
Crown Advocate Adam Harrison, prosecuting, presented text message exchanges that he said pointed towards commercial exchanges, including mention of different quantities of drugs and references to money.
Advocate Harrison said: “This is not consistent with personal use or sharing some out.”
One text read: “Amazing, you’re like the fifth person to ask me last night. I will get on it today.”
Some of the text exchanges were with now-convicted drug dealers.
In a statement read out by the prosecution, Clyde-Smith described drug supplies in Jersey as “erratic”, making it easier to “hoard drugs”.
Detective Constable Scott Lee, giving evidence for the prosecution, said that the price of drugs had increased since 2021, when the crimes took place – with the price for a gram of cocaine going from £120-£220 at the time of Clyde-Smith’s crimes, to £120-£250 now.
He added that since the pandemic, supplies in Jersey had been variable, driving prices up and making the Island a “lucrative” place for drug dealers to work.
The Jurats sitting are: Stephen Murray Jones and Tina Jane Le Poidevin, Guernsey Jurats who were sitting to avoid conflicts of interest with Jersey-based Jurats.
Commissioner Sir John Saunders is presiding.
The hearing continues.
