CRIMINAL CASE NO. 55 OF 2009
COURT: Stand up, please.
I have to sentence you for trafficking in 169 grammes of ketamine. You will appreciate that the courts proceed on the basis of guidelines, which are based on the weight and nature of the drug. You fall into the bracket of 500 to 300 grammes, attracting a starting point after trial of between 6 to 9 years’ imprisonment.
The mitigation presents you as someone who is a ketamine user yourself; that you might have well have consumed some of the drugs here yourself, but you would have sold the bulk on; that you were not someone actually selling in small amounts in the clubs, but would sell to one person. It was put in this way: you were akin to a courier who added a profit in the middle. There is nothing unrealistic in that description of your role, and I will act upon it.
The major mitigation, of course, is the credit for your plea of guilty, and I shall give you a one-third discount from the starting point I take. I have read the letters that have been written on your behalf. Obviously in cases like this where consistency in sentencing is important, they can only have a limited weight. But they have as much weight as I can give them in the circumstances.
Without the letters and the mitigation I have heard from your counsel I would have looked at the starting point of 7 years. That would produce a sentence of 4 years and 8 months after the one-third discount. These matters are not entirely mathematical. You never disputed the facts. The initial plea acknowledged the possession, and some sensible consideration has resulted in the full plea of guilty.
In the circumstances, I shall pass a sentence of 4 years and 6 months’ imprisonment. In my judgment, that is the least you could hope for in these circumstances.