A 23-YEAR-OLD man who tried to smuggle around £10,000 worth of drugs into Jersey – saying he had only come to the Island to pay his respects to his dead grandmother – has been jailed for three and a half years.
George Howard Valentine was stopped by Customs officers when he arrived at the ferry from Poole on 10 September, the Superior Number of the Royal Court heard yesterday.
He told them that his grandmother had lived in Jersey, that he had no accommodation arranged, but planned to sleep on the beach. He later claimed that he intended to move on to Guernsey where he had an offer of work in construction.
But when searched he was found to be concealing a black pouch in his underwear which contained six grams of the class A drug cocaine and more than 119 grams of ketamine, a class B drug.
He admitted the charge of importing illegal drugs, saying he owed money to drug dealers in England – and they had promised to reduce his debt if he carried drugs to Jersey for them.
The cocaine was estimated to have a street value of between £1,000 and £1,700 while the ketamine could have been sold for between £7,200 and £9,600. A search of his mobile phone showed messages to dealers he was told to pass the drugs on to as well as photographs of the drugs.
Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, told the court: “This was no ‘social supply’. It was commercial supply. It was an organised importation.”
The court also heard that Howard had one previous conviction for inflicting grievous bodily harm in 2018 and was wanted by the British Transport Police for a public order offence in March 2022.
She recommended a sentence of five years.
Advocate Heidi Heath, defending, argued for a shorter sentence, saying: “He co-operated with the police, he identified the nature of the drugs, and he provided the PIN number for his phone. He admitted onward supply from the outset.
“From the very outset he has taken full responsibility.”
She added: “This is a man who does want to change the direction his life has taken. He is not yet a lost cause.”
Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae said the Jurats were taking Valentine’s youth, co-operation and remorse into consideration in not imposing a longer prison sentence.
The Jurats sitting were Robert Christensen, Elizabeth Dulake, Gareth Hughes, Michael Entwistle and Mike Berry.
