During a brief appearance in the Royal Court on Friday, Commissioner Sir William Bailhache, presiding, remanded Mark Howe (49) in custody, and told him that he would be sentenced just before Christmas.
Crown Advocate Emma Hollywood, prosecuting, told the court that among the offences Howe had been charged with were the importation of 55 grams of crystal meth and one gram of cocaine. Both are class A drugs. These offences, Advocate Hollywood said, were very serious and ‘carry a starting point of ten years in prison’.
The offences stretched over a two-year period – from January 2018 to November 2019 – and included both importing drugs through the Airport and the post. Advocate Hollywood told the court some of the packages were sent to Howe’s home address and others to his business premises.
Advocate Mike Preston, defending, described Howe as Jersey’s ‘leading florist’ and told the court that his client had ‘fallen prey to crystal meth – a particularly addictive drug’, but had now turned his life around. Howe, the court was told, was remorseful and worried about how his business would fare if he were sent to prison.
Advocate Preston said that the drugs were for Howe’s personal use, and stressed his client was not a dealer, a point agreed by the Crown. Advocate Preston also disagreed with the length of sentence being talked about by the Crown. He said seven years was a more likely outcome and stressed there were many exceptional mitigating circumstances which would reduce the sentence from its starting point.
Howe is due to be sentenced by the Superior Number – usually a panel of at least five Jurats convened to deal with the most serious cases – on 8 December.
Friday’s Royal Court sitting was presided over by Commissioner Sir William Bailhache, who was sitting with Jurats Rozanne Thomas and Gareth Hughes.
