A 21-YEAR-OLD who was caught for the third time with drugs he planned to supply has been jailed for six years.
Joshua James Cauvain was found in possession of large quantities of class A and B drugs when the police searched his home on 30 June, the Royal Court heard. Cauvain pleaded guilty to possession of the drugs with intent to supply.
A total of 1,081 tablets of amphetamines were found, and more than 400 ecstasy tablets. The drugs had an estimated street value of between £30,000 and £45,000, the Superior Number, which convenes for Jersey’s most serious cases, was told.
Cauvain’s phone showed he had been in contact with other drug users and suppliers but he claimed he was not planning to supply the pills and had only been looking after them for someone else.
The court heard that in December 2021 Cauvain was given a 480-hour community service order and put on probation for two years for possession of ecstasy with intent to supply. The new offences put him in breach of the probation order.
Advocate Chris Baglin, defending, said Cauvain accepted he would be going to prison but urged the Jurats not to impose a sentence of more than six or seven years.
He said of Cauvain: ‘He is not a drug user. He has ceased to use drugs and alcohol and he has made positive strides.
‘This is a young man who has been exploited by more sophisticated dealers who do not appear before this court. He is taking the rap for them, as it were.’
He told the court there was no evidence Cauvain, who admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply, had been paid for guarding the pills, saying: ‘No cash was found.’
Delivering the court’s sentence, Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae said the Jurats had taken into account the defendant’s early guilty plea and the fact that he was still aged 20 at the time he was arrested.
But he added: ‘We are satisfied that the offences are so serious that a non-custodial sentence cannot be justified.
‘You have a history of failing to respond to non-custodial sentences. When you received a community service order, that was an exceptional sentence. It was the maximum community service order that can be imposed under the law.
‘It was because of your age, your early guilty plea and your previous good character.
‘The hope was that you would never be seen in court again. Unfortunately that did not occur.’
The court heard that there were another 195 hours of Cauvain’s community service order still to run. The Jurats revoked it and replaced it with another year in prison, to run consecutively with a five-year sentence for the new offence.
The Jurats sitting were Jane Ronge, Robert Christensen, David Le Heuzé, Alison Opferman and Michael Berry.
