CRIMINAL CASE NO. 403 OF 2010
COURT: I have to deal with both of you for trafficking in a dangerous drug. The drug was ketamine.
Between the two of you, you carried some 141 grammes of it. You were caught in the street by police officers. It appears that the contact to acquire the drugs to carry was that of the 1st defendant.
The 1st defendant is 20 now; he was 19 at the time. He was in the company of the 2nd defendant, who was 16 years and 8 months old then, 17 now.
It appears, as it may be the case, that the 2nd defendant was only there by chance and his involvement was on the spur of the moment, as is submitted on his behalf, and was opportunistic.
Both have pleaded guilty. The plea wasn’t in the Magistrates Court, but it was early enough still to attract the one-third discount.
One factor worthy of note, but it’s not something I give any great weight to, is the fact that I’m sentencing what was a 16 year-old now, some 15 months after the event. The difference in outlook and maturity of one year at that sort of age, if I remember right, is significant.
You’ll know, because you’ve been told by your lawyers, that the sentencing is based on guidelines and the guideline in your case runs from 6 to 9 years’ imprisonment after trial for amounts between 50 and 300 grammes.
By weight alone the starting point would be something just over 7 years. But these matters are not decided by weight alone, although it is a very significant factor.
This was a simple case of couriering. I suspect both of you were used to different extents. I will accept what is submitted that the reward was for both of you only $1,000. It is unsophisticated trafficking at the very bottom end of the scale of seriousness.
Having said that, drug trafficking of any sort, especially with this amount of ketamine, is a serious matter.
So bearing in mind the matters I have rehearsed, I shall take a starting point slightly under a mathematically reduced one and in your case for you, the 1st defendant, I shall take a starting point between 6½ and 7 years and I shall reduce that by one-third to give a sentence of 4½ years’ imprisonment.
Because of the age and nature of involvement, and those things go very much together – it is not just age of the 2nd defendant, in your case I will take a starting point of 5½ years and the sentence will be 3 years and 8 months.
Those sentences tend to the lenient side and it reflects the mitigation that I have rehearsed. It also reflects the fact that you have both been on bail and you have both stayed out of trouble since April of 2010.
I will treat that as some evidence of remorse and some indication that you have determined to put this matter behind you. It is sadly very often the case that young men in your position given bail in these circumstances frequently re-offend. You have not.