CRIMINAL CASE NO. 394 OF 2011
Because of your previous convictions, you will know perfectly well that sentencing for drug trafficking is based upon guidelines, and those guidelines are based on the nature of the drug and the quantity of it. So you will realise that the starting point of the sentence in your case after trial would have been somewhere between 5 and 8 years, because you fall into the category that runs from 10 to 50 grammes.
Even though your plea was on the last moment available to you, you still will have the one-third discount.
It is a sad fact that the history of your previous convictions demonstrates a life ruined by drugs, and you acknowledge that in your letter to me, because since you were a teenager you have been convicted of trafficking and possession of dangerous drugs, demonstrating nearly 30 years of involvement.
You have 12 convictions for simple possession, and you have been convicted in each of the three decades since you first started trafficking in dangerous drugs of that offence. At 19 you went to training centre for trafficking; four years later, a sentence of 5 years for trafficking in dangerous drugs; in 1994, 5½ years for the same offence; and then in 2005, 6 years in this court, again for trafficking.
I cannot overlook that record. However, I have read a nice letter from your lady friend, and I bear in mind, even though it was late, that you have pleaded guilty. Having heard your counsel’s mitigation, I shall treat that as less of an aggravation than I first thought I might.
At 42 grammes, you are very near the top of the bracket, and the aggravation of your persistence in trafficking drives me to take a point at the top of the bracket of 8 years.
The fact is your record would in fact have justified a slightly higher starting point, in my view. However, in all the circumstances of this case, I will not take you out of the bracket, but I shall start at 8 years. I shall give you the one-third discount.
The sentence is thus 5 years and 4 months.