Drug dealer’s string of deals found on phone

Stuart Page, 46, had his home, Flat 2, 9, Allez Street, St Peter Port, raided four times under suspicion of supplying drugs, in January, May and December 2020 and February 2021. On each occasion officers found drugs – usually small amounts – and cash.

Two mobile phones were also seized during the searches and Page gave police the passcodes to them, which showed the extent of his offending.

Crucially for Page’s sentence in the Royal Court, one exchange, across three messages, indicated an offer to supply the Class A drug MDMA and referenced these drugs possibly having been left in a bag.

He admitted a total of 13 counts, including offering to supply MDMA, cannabis, and lorazepam, two of being concerned in the supply of Class B and Class C drugs to another, five counts of possession of cannabis, two of possession of diazepam and one of possession of tramadol.

The count of offering to supply MDMA attracted a six-and-a-half year sentence, in line with the Richards guidelines on sentencing for supplying Class A drugs.

Page was sentenced on each of the other counts to prison terms of between one month to two-and-a-half years, the longest sentences relating to the supply of cannabis, all to be served concurrent.

The evidence from the phones gave police details of many drug deals he set up for friends and acquaintances, the Royal Court heard. Most of them were small-scale deals and Page argued that he only supplied people he knew.

Advocate Sam Maindonald said that Page suffered from a delibitating back injury which meant he could not work. He used prescription and illegal drugs to deal with the pain and mental health issues, and had become addicted to them.

He had taken to supplying drugs to fund his habit rather than to make a profit. She highlighted the low levels of drugs found in the searches – in total some 23.4g of herbal cannabis, 1.3g of cannabis resin, 19 diazepam tablets and 40 tramadol tablets.

The charge relating to an offer to supply MDMA, a Class A drug, was not substantiated by the discovery of any such drugs, and was an offer of bravado and not carried out, she said.

Through his advocate, Page apologised unreservedly to the court and said he hoped never to be in the dock again. He knew he would be starting a prison sentence. Page had a number of previous convictions for dishonesty offences and had served time in prison for them, but he only had two possession drug offences against him, both of which dated back more than 20 years.

Judge Catherine Fooks gave Page credit for his guilty pleas and passing on the passcode, but noted that Page had continued to deal while carrying out community service for a previous offence, then while on police bail and then court bail. The offences before the court covered a period of some 16 months. ‘You showed no respect for the police or court bail system,’ she said.