Court of Appeal backs up Royal Court drug sentencing

Refusing three offenders leave to appeal against the length of their prison sentences, it rejected their arguments that the policy, known as the Richards Guidelines, was out of date and resulted in sentences that were manifestly excessive.

They had argued that the policy needed to be reviewed at least in cases where the amount of drugs imported was very small and intended for personal consumption.

In a high-profile case in May, Pip Orchard, 30, was jailed for two-and-a-half years for importing cocaine and for two counts of importing the class C drug Alprazolam.

In the same month, Thomas Barras, 28, and Matthew Watt, 43, were jailed for a joint charge of importing cocaine into Alderney.

Barras got five years and nine months for the offence with 18 months, concurrent, for importing cannabis.

Watt received five years and six months plus eight months, consecutive, for failing to provide police with the pin number to his mobile phone.

The court said firstly it had to consider whether there was good reason to justify a relaxation in the policy which in 2002 had motivated the Court of Appeal to formulate sentencing guidelines locally for drug trafficking offences.

It was not aware that this had caused difficulties in practice or created injustice in particular cases.

For Watt and Orchard, Advocate Samuel Steel said the value of drugs seized by Guernsey Police had doubled between 2012 [£682,968] and 2019 [£1,359,719] and drugs remained an issue locally.

The court did not accept the appellants’ arguments that current sentencing levels were ineffective as a deterrent or that lowering sentencing levels would not necessarily lead to an increase in offending.

The drug marketplace in Guernsey was complex and the financial rewards associated with drug trafficking were particularly attractive to criminal gangs.

‘We have little doubt that if we were to relax these guidelines to identify a lower starting point for small amounts of drugs there would be an increase in drug trafficking activity with criminal gangs packing drugs in smaller amounts to take advantage of the higher rewards available through selling drugs in Guernsey,’ the court said in its judgement.

Relaxation in relation to small amounts could also work as an injustice in genuine cases of personal use.

‘It is our clear view that the Richard Guidelines contain sufficient flexibility to accommodate the mitigating circumstances that might arise in any particular case and our experience shows this to be the case.’

Sentencing in England and Wales was done in Crown Courts at the various locations whereas in Guernsey the Royal Court was the sole one dealing with such matters.

This fact in itself was conductive to consistency of approach and fairness.

In the court’s view the Richard Guidelines remained good law.

It agreed with submissions advanced by the Law Officers of the Crown that the guidelines were not to be read as an inflexible code.

They had served the Bailiwick well for nearly two decades and continued to do so.

The appeal court stated that the sentences imposed by the Royal Court were not arguably excessive, and the application for leave to appeal against them was dismissed.