A WOMAN has been jailed for three years after being caught with 56.28 grams of cocaine while on a so-called “overnight trip” to Jersey on 19 December 2025.

Lisa Danielle Ross was brought to the attention of drug detector dogs at Jersey Airport and found to be concealing an estimated £14,000 worth of the Class A drug.

The 39-year-old from Ashford initially told Jersey Customs and Immigration Services she was in Jersey for an “overnight trip”, despite having no accommodation booked.

She was arrested and cautioned after a swab of her mobile phone returned a positive indication for cocaine.

Ross was found with a small clingfilm package in her bra with 1.89 grams of cocaine and a larger package containing 54.39 grams concealed internally.

A subsequent analysis of her mobile phone revealed that Ross was acting as a drug courier and expected to be paid £1,500 for a single shipment of the illicit substance.

She pleaded guilty at the Magistrate’s Court on 22 December 2025 to the importation of cocaine and appeared at the Royal Court yesterday to be sentenced before the Superior Number.

Crown Advocate Jordan Gollop, prosecuting, referred to a “series of messages” found on her mobile phone as evidence of her intention to commit the offence.

The court heard that one contact had been pressing her for money ahead of Christmas, while Ross indicated she expected to receive £1,500 in Jersey and would use it to repay the debt.

In the same exchange, she also expressed concern about being unable to get “stuff” into Jersey, which prosecutors said further supported their case.

The prosecutor stated: “We note the defendant’s position as a mere courier; we accept the court will often see cases like this where a courier has come to this Island – often in difficult circumstances – and often with little to gain from the importation themselves.

“[But] it is no justification for the defendant’s conduct, and the court will be aware of authorities which often repeat that a courier plays a small but central role in the trafficking of drugs to the Island.”

Crown Advocate Gollop asked for a sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

Advocate Nicholas Mière, defending, asked for a lesser sentence, citing the “direction of travel the court has taken with regards to drugs sentencing over the last couple of years.”

He said his client was “vulnerable” and addicted to cocaine herself.

“This was her escape from an otherwise inescapable situation – a downward spiral which had reached a nadir in the days leading up to the offending,” he added.

“In her own words: ‘I’d be dead now if I hadn’t been caught’.”

Delivering the sentence, Bailiff Robert MacRae said Ross should be “very ashamed” of her behaviour and its consequences for her four children.

Taking into account Ross’s “slippery slope into addiction”, he ordered a total sentence of three years’ imprisonment. The forfeiture and destruction of the cocaine was also ordered.