1998/130 - AG v Lunt [1998] UR 130 (22 June 1998)

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Sentencing by the Superior Number of the Royal Court, to which the accused was remanded by the Inferior Number on 8 May 1998, following a guilty plea, entered on 23 January 1998 to:

1 count of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on importation of a controlled drug, contrary to Article 77(b) of the Customs and Excise (General Provisions) (Jersey) Law, 1972:

1 count of possession of a controlled drug, with intent to supply it to another, contrary to Article 6(2) of the Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law, 1978.

On 23 January 1998, the accused pleaded not guilty to 1 count of possession of a controlled drug, contrary to Article 6 (1) of the Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law, 1978, which plea the Crown accepted (Count 3)

Co-accused Anthony Edward Judge pleaded not guilty on the 23 January 1998, to Count 1, and was tried before the Inferior Number on 5 - 11 May, 1998, and was found not guilty and discharged.

In June 1997, LUNT purchased a vehicle and a towbar for that vehicle. He placed 519.71 grams of heroin in a single plastic bag, cut open the towbar, inserted the bag containing the heroin into the hollow section of the towbar, welded the towbar back together and fitted it on the vehicle. Lunt made travel arrangements for two unsuspecting couriers to take the vehicle from Liverpool to Jersey and to contact him once they had arrived safely in the Island. On 5 July 1997, LUNT then flew to Jersey from Liverpool with JUDGE, (acquitted of charge of importation by Inferior Number on 11 May 1998) LUNT collected the car, removed the towbar and took the towbar to a room in a Guest House in which he had booked in a false name. He sawed open the towbar, removed the contents and repackaged the drugs into five sandwich/freezer bags, (one of which contained five smaller "deal" type bags).

LUNT was arrested outside the Guest House bedroom and taken into the bedroom. He was handcuffed and sat on a chair. LUNT attempted to escape by throwing himself headfirst through the closed window to that bedroom which was located at first floor level and he had to be pulled in by officers. During the struggle that ensued LUNT said "the stufs splitting inside me" and directed the officers to a package contained in shorts that he was wearing underneath tracksuit bottoms. Two plastic bags containing heroin were removed from LUNTs shorts. Three further bags were recovered from the base of the bed in the Guest House room. LUNT was taken to Police Headquarters and at one stage attempted to escape from police custody whilst being escorted from the cells to an interview by climbing onto a roof.

LUNT was initially unco-operative with the police and gave a false story. Two weeks after his arrest he made admissions and he pleaded guilty when presented on indictment before the Royal Court. He played a central rôle in the importation of drugs into the Island. He stated that he stood to gain £15,000 as a result of his involvement. The purity by weight of the heroin imported varied between 11% and % The street value of the seizure was £93,547.80 if sold by the gram at £180 per gram. The purity of the seizure was less than the national average of 45%.

Plea of guilty (although in the circumstances LUNT had little option other than to plead guilty as he was caught in flagrante delicto). Apologised to the Court through his advocate for his actions. Quantity of drug imported was greater than Le Tarouilly but quality was less. If the drugs imported in the case of Le Tarouilly had been "bulked out" the number of "fixes" would have greatly exceeded that of LUNT.

21 theft and kindred offences; 4 offences relating to failing to surrender to bail, etc.; 3 drugs offences (2 of simple possession and in 1993 was convicted of supplying a controlled drug (Methadone) for which he was imprisoned for three months).

AG felt obliged to take a starting point of 14 years which was limited by maximum penalty for importation in force at the date of commission of offence and 1 year reduction for plea of guilty.

Accused played a central rôle in relation to a sophisticated and very significant commercial importation of a Class A drug into the Island. Court was not convinced by the Crowns submission that the starting point for both of the above offences was limited to 14 years imprisonment because the maximum penalty for the importation at the time the offences were committed was that of 14 years imprisonment (possession with intent to supply at that time was subject to a maximum of life imprisonment). Nevertheless, the Court adopted this starting point but was going to depart from the Crowns conclusions as there were aggravating features in this case, namely the duping of innocent parties (the two couriers) and the fact that LUNTs actions resulted in the trial against Mr Judge and the distress caused to Judge and his family members. If offences had occurred after 17 October 1997, (offences took place in July, 1997) then a higher starting point would have been taken on account of LUNTs central rôle.

THE DEPUTY BAILIFF: We have heard this afternoon how Lunt carefully planned an importation of a very large amount of heroin into Jersey. The plan was not without sophistication. He purchased a car and involved an acquaintance of his - a man called Judge - who had intended only to come to Jersey with his girlfriend. She had made other plans. He also arranged for two men called Mason and Garner to bring the car to Jersey. Unbeknown to these men, he had obtained a towbar for the car which he had purchased and packed the heroin into it. He had also reserved a separate room under a false name at the Bay View Guest House and there it was eventually that he took the towbar and with a hacksaw and other tools which he had purchased, dismantled it, and began to repack the heroin.

When he was arrested at the Bay View Guest House bags of heroin were found in his pockets and in the base of the bed. The total weight of the heroin recovered amounted to 519.71 grams. Twice Lunt attempted to escape, once by leaping headfirst through a closed window of the Bay View Guest House at the time that he was arrested, and he was then restrained. The second time, when he was at Police Headquarters, he attempted to climb onto the roof area.

There is no doubt in our minds that Lunt played an important part in this importation. We know more of that because Mr Judge had to face a trial in Jersey at which he was acquitted.

As the Crown Advocate has said his rôle in the importation of these drugs was as follows: he had arranged to purchase the vehicle in which the drugs were transported; he had purchased the towbar in which the drugs were subsequently concealed; he had cut open that towbar, and concealed the drugs in it; he had welded the towbar back together and fitted the towbar onto the vehicle; he had made travel arrangements for two unsuspecting couriers, Mr Mason and Mr Garner, convincing them that they were to come to Jersey to collect tyres for him and this for a small reward; he had made the travel arrangements for himself and Mr. Judge; he had made clear arrangements for couriers to contact him in Liverpool once they had safely passed through Customs in Jersey. He had flown to the Island, collected the vehicle and booked the room at the Bay View Guest House in a false name. Once the drugs had been safely imported into the Island, he purchased the plastic bags and the tools necessary to retrieve and repackage the drugs, removed the towbar from the vehicle: "I had sawn open the towbar and recovered the drugs" and, when he was arrested, had repackaged them into smaller "deal" bags and was in possession of two of those bags on his way to meet his local contact to whom he was going to supply the drugs.

Of course we do not know who it was who initially supplied him with the drugs in Liverpool. When he gave evidence on Mr Judges behalf, as I recall, he was unemployed. We do not know to whom these drugs were to be supplied, although clearly he was in contact with prime dealers locally, because in the course of Mr Judge’s trial, he told us that he had been to see people with whom he was dealing and they had given him heroin for his personal use early one Sunday morning and had also supplied him with a television set for use in the hotel room and presumably to act as a distraction for Mr Judge and the other two where they were staying.

As to the heroin itself, DS Coles provided a statement in which he provided details of the street value of the amount which was imported by the accused, pointing out the truism that heroin obviously commands a street price in Jersey which is higher than in most areas of the United Kingdom because of the difficulties of importing it into the Island. The current price per gram in Jersey is between £180 and £200. Heroin is normally purchased in "score" bags, these are wraps or twists containing approximately one-tenth of a gram and retailing at approximately £30 a "score" bag or £300 per gram. The powder in a "score" bag may contain sufficient of the drug for two or three doses, depending on the individual tolerance of the user. Although the purity of this seizure was less than the national average of 45% purity by weight, that indicated to DS Coles that the consignment would not be cut or bulked out with some form of non-controlled substance to increase the quantity and thus the profit. But he observed - and he was clearly right in his observation - that the amount that was seized was a significant - he might have said, in our view, a very significant - commercial amount of heroin equating to approximately 5,197 "score" bags at the very least. Each "score" bag gives two or three individual doses thus the consignment - looking at it in practical terms - could have been used to supply up to 15,591 individual doses.

The words of this Court which were used by the Court of Appeal in the case of Raffray -v- AG (17 January 1996) Jersey Unreported CofA were these:

"The harm that might have been done to young people, in particular, and to the fabric of society, as a result of this filthy trade in which Raffray was involved is incalculable".

This is the largest every importation of heroin into Jersey as we have said. It is greater than the amount in AG -v- Le Tarouilly (2 December 1996) Jersey Unreported, despite the figures helpfully supplied to us by Mr Taylor. Le Tarouilly in 1996 received 12 years’ imprisonment from this Court. But in our view there are aggravating features in this case. Lunt said this in his cautioned interview: "Everything is down to me. I duped Mr Judge, Mr Mason and Mr Garner." He will not of course disclose his contacts, but what he did say was this: "… there are no drugs on the Island and you get good money for it."

Heroin, as Lunt will know for he is a heroin addict, leads to a craving and that adds to the mounting rate of acquisitive crime such as muggings and break-ins to which the Court of Appeal referred to in the seminal case of Campbell, Molloy and Mackenzie (1995) JLR 136 CofA and which is why the Court of Appeal said in that case:

"… offenders will receive condign punishment to mark the peculiarly heinous and antisocial nature of the crime of drug trafficking."

We have looked at Campbell in particular and this importation is forty times greater than his case. We have also looked at the other cases referred to in the bundle of the learned Crown Advocate and in particular that of AG -v- Perchard and McConnachie (22 November 1995) Jersey Unreported and AG -v- Jones, Rayner (6 June 1996) Jersey Unreported.

The maximum length of imprisonment at the time this offence was committed for the importation of a Class A drug was fourteen years. That was later increased by Article 5 of the Drug Trafficking (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Jersey) Law, 1996 to life imprisonment. At the relevant time the maximum sentence for possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply to another was life imprisonment. There is an anomaly here and the Crown has submitted that, as the gravamen of this offence is importation of heroin, it would not be correct to adopt a higher starting point than the fourteen years allowed by the law on importation which was extant at the time. We have reservations about that argument but we will not depart from the conclusions of the learned Attorney in that regard. We have to recall that Lunt told the police in interview that he was destined to make £15,000 from this importation.

We have to say that for the severity of an offence of this nature we would have been minded, had it not been for the legal anomaly pointed out to us by the learned Crown Advocate and despite everything that has been said by Mr Taylor, to give a sentence in excess of that recommended by the Crown. As it is we are not prepared to allow as much as one year for mitigation. The guilty plea was forced upon Lunt and, in our view, there are aggravating features: by involving Mr Judge in his plans he caused Mr Judge to face a trial and we cannot but recall that Mr Judge’s father had to sit through the whole of that trial. Stand up, Lunt. We are sentencing you concurrently on each count to 13½ years imprisonment and we order the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs.

Whelan: "Aspects of Sentencing in the Superior Courts of Jersey" - Noter-up May 1996-1997: "Discussion of cases outside the starting point band".

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Jersey Unreported Judgments