COURT: I have to sentence you for trafficking in a dangerous drug. You will have been told that the sentences are based upon guidelines and that the guidelines are based on the nature and quantity of the drug. In your case, the drug was heroin. You had swallowed 78 pellets of it and those 78 pellets contained 380 grammes of heroin in a powder of greater quantity.
You fall into the category that runs from 200 grammes to 400 grammes attracting a starting point after trial of 12 to 15 years’ imprisonment; and obviously at 380 grammes you are right at the top of that bracket.
I have to factor in a mild increase to reflect the element of carrying the drugs over international borders. It was the fact that you were stopped at our airport having arrived here from Dubai. You had swallowed the pellets, so you told the authorities, in Tanzania.
You will appreciate that I have little discretion in the sentence I pass. That is because our courts are very anxious to deal with people even-handedly and the mechanism they use to achieve that is by looking just at the weight of the drugs.
But it does not mean I have to shut my eyes completely to the fact that you were, and I accept, just a courier. In those circumstances, rather than taking what looked like a very obvious 15‑year starting point, I shall reduce it to reflect the role, but I cannot reduce it too significantly, given the way we sentence here.
Bearing in mind the international element for which I make a nominal increase in the region of about three months, I shall take a starting point of 14 years. After the one-third discount that gives a sentence of 9 years and 4 months.
I am quite aware that applying everything really rigidly you would have got, in fact, 10 years with a 15‑year starting point but I am allowed a small discretion and I will use that small discretion to reflect that you were a courier, you come from a background that, it is quite obvious to me on the little that I know from the antecedents.
I think I can temper justice with a little bit of mercy bearing in mind your early plea of guilty by passing a sentence of 9 years and 4 months.