Jail for bid to export £1m. of drugs

The 45-year-old, who had previously given an address of 6, Back Street, St Peter Port, pleaded guilty to attempting to export the Class B drug, cannabis resin, as well as two counts of possessing the drug.

The Royal Court heard the defendant had booked a two-day trip to Portsmouth by ferry in January.

When he arrived at the harbour in his BMW, he was spoken to by Border Agency staff. He confirmed he had no accommodation booked and had planned to visit the mainland to ‘open up his car’s engine’.

When officers opened the boot and checked under the carpet, they found more than 400 clingfilm-wrapped packages in the spare wheel compartment. In total there were 40.25kg.

There was also 0.91g in his trousers and 30g at his home.

His iPhone was analysed and investigators found a message saying ‘got it’. Later Phillips created a new contact on his phone called ‘car job’. He said little in his police interviews.

Defence advocate Liam Roffey said his client had a criminal record, which impacted his ability to get a job.

In 2012 he had requalified as a HGV driver and since 2018 had lived a law-abiding life.

However last July, the licensing authority said they would not be renewing his licence as he had admitted using cannabis to help himself sleep.

This caused him to lose his job, get into debt and struggle with his mental health. When he was approached by someone offering him £2,000 to export the drugs, he refused. But when it was upped to £4,000, he accepted.

Advocate Roffey said it was difficult to put a value on the drugs. While the local price would be between £805,056 and £1,207,584, the UK price was much lower. He estimated that it would be £10 per gram, rather than £20 to £30 per gram. The prosecution said the UK price was even lower - about £5 per gram, which would mean the drugs would only be worth just over £200,000.

He urged the court to take into account the UK’s more lenient drug smuggling sentencing guidelines, rather than the stricter Guernsey rules.

Research by the prosecution and defence had found only two export cases in the last 50 years of Guernsey’s legal history, neither of which had similar circumstances.

Judge Russell Finch said the Jurats noted that this involved a huge quantity of drugs. They also took into account the detrimental impact the misuse of cannabis had been having on Phillips’s life and that there was a high likelihood of him reoffending.

‘The misuse of cannabis has tainted your life,’ Judge Finch said.

Phillips was sentenced to six years and six months in prison for the exportation matter. He was then sentenced to one month for each of the possession matters, which will run concurrently to the other sentence.

In sentencing, the judge said this was a peculiar case and the sentence should not set a precedent.