A 21-YEAR-OLD drug dealer who was caught trying to smuggle 1.2kg of cannabis through the post to his grandmother’s home has been jailed for 15 months.
Joel Steven William Hampton appeared before the Royal Court yesterday following his arrest in January 2020. He was found guilty of importing drugs and possession with intent to supply and admitted possessing small amounts of cannabis and cannabis resin.
Hampton’s sentencing took place in the more secure Magistrate’s Court owing to his behaviour immediately following his conviction. It was heard that he had become ‘difficult’ at the Royal Court building, during transport and while on remand in prison where he ‘spat at staff’ and, within the past month, had smashed a television.
Crown Advocate Sam Brown, prosecuting, said that in January 2020, Customs intercepted a package labelled as a ‘water foot pump’ addressed to Hampton at his grandmother’s home. It contained cannabis resin worth up to £24,800.
Officers from the agency searched the house and seized several devices, two of which contained messages appearing to show Hampton had been working as a dealer since June 2018.
Advocate Brown moved for a 15-month prison sentence on the basis that Hampton, who he described as being ‘one level above a street dealer’ was ‘at the centre of an arrangement to buy and sell cannabis and cannabis resin for profit.’
Advocate Brown added Hampton had shown an ‘absence of remorse’ and a ‘continued hopeless plea to his innocence in the teeth of a conviction’.
Probation officer Sarah Barrowcliffe, appearing via video link, said Hampton would not be appropriate for community service as his ‘challenging behaviour’ would present a risk to staff and other service users. She also assessed him as being at a high risk of reconviction within the next 12 months.
Advocate Francesca Pinel, defending, asked the court to impose a community service equivalent of 15 months in prison, contrary to the recommendations of the probation service.
She said Hampton’s age at the time of the offences would allow him to be legally classed as a young person and someone who therefore should not be sent to prison unless there was no alternative.
Advocate Pinel added that her client had no previous convictions, had not offended while on bail following his arrest and that there had been an 18-month delay in the case coming to court.
Delivering the sentence, Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, presiding, said that owing to the seriousness of Hampton’s offending, a custodial sentence was unavoidable.
He urged the defendant to undergo a psychological assessment that he had previously refused.
He said: ‘It really is in your interests to do and and thereafter follow whatever course of therapy and treatment that is recommended to you. We hope you do so.’
Jurats Jane Ronge and Robert Christensen were also sitting.
