1998/52 - AG v Muat [1998] UR 52 (16 March 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 6 February 1998, following a guilty plea to;

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

13.9g of heroin 28% purity by weight. Value £2,980 if sold at £200 per g. £4,470 if sold at 300 per g. National average = 45% by weight.

Remorse. Addict. Life spiralling down. Pressure as son handicapped with life expectancy of 5 years. Original said for personal use but then retracted and therefore avoided a Newton hearing.

THE DEPUTY BAILIFF: John Jason Muat was stopped by Customs Officers on the 22 October 1997, at the Elizabeth Harbour Terminal. He told Customs Officers that he was travelling with his mother Mary Mason (née Burn) and that he had come to Jersey to look for work as he had a handicapped son in Liverpool to support.

He later admitted that the name that he had given was false; his real name of course was Muat; the lady was not his mother but apparently a woman living in the same street in Liverpool and his joint travel ticket was booked in the false name of JJ Rem, and was for return on the 25 October at 11.10am.

Eventually he handed a small package to Customs Officer Noel which he said contained heroin. When this was confirmed x-rays of his body were taken and after a period of time he managed to pass four packages which on examination after they had been thoroughly washed (this is a thoroughly unpleasant business) were found to contain in all 14.90grams of diamorphine heroin with a value of £2,900 per gram if sold by the gram at £200 per gram.

Of course heroin is normally purchased in score bags containing one tenth of a gram which sell at £300 per gram. If sold in this way then its value would have been £4,470. Each score bag is sufficient to provide up to three individual doses depending on the tolerance of the user, and of course there was only 28% purity by weight in this supply. Recent experience has shown that score bags are being sold significantly under weight, and that of course merely reflects the element of greed at every level of drug dealing, but there was probably sufficient for 149 score bags to be made from this supply.

We must of course, have regard to the Court of Appeals judgment in Gregory, (15 January 1997) Jersey Unreported CofA, which has apparently created two offences, differently punishable. These are simple or personal use importation, and importation with intent to supply. Fortunately Muat does not now claim - although he did originally - that these drugs were for his personal use. It is very difficult to understand how he could have claimed that.

He is, he says, a heroin addict, but to bring this amount of heroin into Jersey - after the fabric of lies had been unravelled - for a period of three days, would in our view, not have made the task of the prosecution too difficult (if there had been a need for a Newton hearing) to prove commercial use to the criminal standard.

Fortunately we do not have to follow the difficult pass into which the judgment in Gregory might have led us, and for that Muat deserves some credit.

In the landmark decision of Campbell, Molloy, MacKenzie -v- AG, (1995) JLR 136 CofA, the Court of Appeal said this, talking of mounting acquisitive crime in the United Kingdom:

"There is as yet no firm evidence that heroin abuse is generating such crime in Jersey, but we accept that it has the potential to do so. The Attorney General invited us to consider how such acquisitive crime, particularly burglaries and muggings, might adversely affect the quality of life in Jersey".

That was in April 1995. Three years later we are very much at the stage where heroin - based crime has led to armed robbery and mutilation, and where heroin abuse has led to death on more than one occasion.

We do not have the information that perhaps we should have: how did a man who has worked for only fourteen months in his 28 years of life acquire this amount of heroin? How did he pay for his tickets? Who was the lady who accompanied him in the guise of his mother? Where was he going to stay in Jersey? And perhaps the great imponderable: Was he going to meet someone when he had hopefully passed through our extremely vigilant Customs Authorities?

None of these questions will ever be answered, and they need not concern us in sentencing. Mr Morris has said all that he could. We have read the references with care and we acknowledge the personal tragedy of this young mans handicapped child and the fact that his mother died recently. Mr Morris asks us to reduce by way of mitigation the term of imprisonment from 6 years to 5 on the basis of a lower starting point. We feel quite unable to lower the starting point from the 8 years suggested by the Crown.

The Crown however, allowed nothing for the guilty plea, but the saving of a Newton hearing must be of some value, and the plea of guilty - although of small value - we feel should be acknowledged, but this decision is that of a majority of the Jurats.

Will you stand up please, you are now sentenced to five years imprisonment. We have ordered destruction of the drugs.

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Jersey Unreported Judgments