UK - Class A/ B drugs prisonment?

[incredy]

hi

I got a friend who has been caught with quite abit of class A and B drugs and accordance to the police they say it's deemed to be intent to supply (due to the quantity, I couldnt say for sure how much).

My friend had denied trying to sell drugs to customers but has said he had been holding onto them as he owed the dealers money and therefore was paying them debt by holding onto them (something like this, I am unsure though as I dont know the full story). Also the weighing scales was used for measuring for personal use.

As to money, he has basically jack in his account and about a few hundred pounds they the police seized when they raided his home. so in other words he isn't Big time dealer or anything. He has denied selling.

He has never been convicted of anything before in his life, no drugs or anything at all!

He is out on bail.

How much should he be looking at in terms of sentencing?

thanks for any advice?

[Alfa]

Without quantity this will be very hard to answer. What do the police documents state?

[incredy]

I am not too sure....lets just say 5kilos (?) i maybe wrong but there was quite abit they seized.

incredy added 575 Minutes and 36 Seconds later...

anybody?

[aerozeppelin123]

5 kilos is far too much of any drug to get away with personal use. It will definitely be intent to supply IMO. Here is what happened to someone caught with 5 kilos of coke:

[top] Courier jailed over cocaine haul

A cocaine courier has been jailed for five years after a judge warned that the courts would try to break the drugs link between Liverpool and Dundee.
Daniel Schofield was caught with five kilos of cocaine, worth £250,000 on the streets, after police received a tip-off about a drug handover in Dundee.
He tried to run when officers challenged him but was quickly found.
Liverpudlian Schofield, 28, previously admitted being concerned in the supply of the class A drug.
Police set up observations outside Discovery Quay in Dundee after learning that Schofield had booked into a hotel room on 8 February 2007.
They had previously been warned that a man heavily involved in the city's drugs trade was due to meet a courier from Liverpool.
Schofield was seen leaving his room with two carrier bags, which he put into the back of a taxi before police moved in.


Schofield ran but was caught. He was found to have £400 in cash, while the bags contained cocaine and digital scales.
Schofield had claimed he thought he was delivering cannabis to pay off a drugs debt.
Lord Uist told him: "You took a calculated risk in bringing these drugs to Dundee and now you must pay the penalty."
At the High Court in Edinburgh, the judge said: "The drugs connection between Liverpool and Dundee is well known to this court, which must do all it can to destroy it."
Schofield failed to show up for an earlier trial and was later arrested on Jersey.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...al/7826619.stm

[ATWA]

Originally Posted by aerozeppelin123

5 kilos is far too much of any drug to get away with personal use. It will definitely be intent to supply IMO. Here is what happened to someone caught with 5 kilos of coke:

[top] Courier jailed over cocaine haul

A cocaine courier has been jailed for five years after a judge warned that the courts would try to break the drugs link between Liverpool and Dundee.
Daniel Schofield was caught with five kilos of cocaine, worth £250,000 on the streets, after police received a tip-off about a drug handover in Dundee.
He tried to run when officers challenged him but was quickly found.
Liverpudlian Schofield, 28, previously admitted being concerned in the supply of the class A drug.
Police set up observations outside Discovery Quay in Dundee after learning that Schofield had booked into a hotel room on 8 February 2007.
They had previously been warned that a man heavily involved in the city's drugs trade was due to meet a courier from Liverpool.
Schofield was seen leaving his room with two carrier bags, which he put into the back of a taxi before police moved in.


Schofield ran but was caught. He was found to have £400 in cash, while the bags contained cocaine and digital scales.
Schofield had claimed he thought he was delivering cannabis to pay off a drugs debt.
Lord Uist told him: "You took a calculated risk in bringing these drugs to Dundee and now you must pay the penalty."
At the High Court in Edinburgh, the judge said: "The drugs connection between Liverpool and Dundee is well known to this court, which must do all it can to destroy it."
Schofield failed to show up for an earlier trial and was later arrested on Jersey.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...al/7826619.stm

Only 5 years for 5 kilos! LOL. Try living in the USA.

[incredy]

thanks for that info mate, but this guy has never been involved with drugs etc...so would that help to reduce sentence

[Alfa]

What drug are we talking about?

[incredy]

okay guys some correction here:

Cocaine was 8.5Kgs
Heroin was 1 kilo

They seized a few hundred pounds..... scales/ packets.

He has no other money/ assets etc. no criminal record either, this is first offence. age 24

How long are we talking here?

[Wierd Logic]

Definitely jail time! Wouldn't be able to guess how much, depends how believable his story turns out to be...

Scales definitely don't help.

[incredy]

but are we talking a very long time?

[bananaskin]

It is possible that your friend could get up to 7 years for intent to supply Class A Drugs... this is a lot of shit to be caught with and as a previous reply stated, the scales sure won't help.

bananaskin added 2 Minutes and 50 Seconds later...

There is a wiki entitled 'Misuse of Drugs act 1971' which could be of use to your friend... unable to post link as insufficient posts.

[incredy]

some more info purity is 30%

[bananaskin]

Still Class A... personally Kit doesn't think that would be an issue.

Still a shit load of shit as well.

Check out the wiki link above for more information, or maybe someone who can would paste the link?

As for your friend, even 30% of 8.5k is 2.55k of coke, and 300g of smack. That is nearly 3k of pure.

[Sunshine-Band]

You make it sound like a hapless bloke with a few drugs for sale - 8.5 kg of coke is massive and you know it. Its not up to seven years - its up to life. This is double figures territory - that Scottish sentence was lenient. How do you know its 30% pure (not that purity counts for anything)?

[powerrobbie]

purity does not matter, they dont take into account that only 30 percent of it is actually coke, they just put the whole bag on the scale. I would say your friend is pretty much fucked...sorry to say but to think he will be getting off lightly is just false hope. be prepared to hear that your friend is going to be spending mulitple years in jail.

[incredy]

actually i got the drugs mixed up...

it was canibis that was around 8 kilo
and herion that was around 1 kilo...

as to the purity , dont know but another friend of mine said that is what they usually are.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Please get the facts right, so SWIMmers can teach and learn with truth and integrity.

[Sunshine-Band]

Originally Posted by incredy

actually i got the drugs mixed up...

it was canibis that was around 8 kilo
and herion that was around 1 kilo...

as to the purity , dont know but another friend of mine said that is what they usually are.

Canibis and herion now? So if you know the purity it must be already into the prosecution, and SWIY has a solicitor and a barrister who know all about it so why bother to come on here 'anxiously' asking about 8.5kg of cocaine when it was 'canibis'? If you are that lax about the language, then you can hardly help anyone.

[bananaskin]

Kit would have to agree that there is a massive difference in 'information' here... class B as opposed to class A is just a starter.

Kit and for sure many, many others would advise SWIY to have more facts to hand when posting 'urgent' requests for info... even though we all make mistakes, this is misinformation.

Anyhow the wiki link should still prove useful.

Cannabis class B? A disgraceful classification Kit reports, while the great and the good of our nations allow copious 'useage' of alcohol and tobacco, and teach us to be free.

[Sunshine-Band]

It would be Class C as well (apart from the herron) as it would obviously have been a bust before the change on the 26 Jan.

[yolbit]

by law being caught with 8kg of weed and 1k of heroin your friend could recieve life in prison

if there was evidence he was only a courier or was not actually selling it, he would get a lot less time...from the info you've given that looks unlikely

it looks like most ppl will get about 2-4 years in the UK for a key of heroin, slap another 8 keys of weed on top of that, maybe another 4 years? i'd say 6 - 8 years and that would be lenient
http://www.hamiltonadvertiser.co.uk/...1525-21528754/

TWO drug dealers caught with £35,000-worth of heroin were last week jailed for a total of nine years.
Single mum Caroline Glassford and Joseph Mills were seen as ‘important players’ among pushers in Hamilton, Blantyre and other parts of South Lanarkshire.
They were stopped by traffic police at about 8pm on January 6 this year near the M74’s junction 10 at Lesmahagow.
Officers searched their Vauxhall Astra and discovered almost half-a-kilogram of diamorphine – with a street value of £35,000 – in a black plastic bag beneath the front passenger seat.
Glassford (36) of Fleming Way, Hillhouse, Hamilton, and Mills (49), of Ashley Place, Blantyre, denied a charge of selling smack when they appeared at Lanark Sheriff Court.
They both blamed each other for the heroin being in the car.
Glassford, who had £1000 in her possession at the time of her arrest, claimed she had been coming back from Dumfries where she had gone to buy a dog.
However, following a four-day trial in June, a jury convicted both of being concerned in the supply of drugs.
Mills was also found guilty of a bail aggravation charge.
A third occupant of the Astra, Stacey Haley, was not prosecuted.
On Thursday at the Lanark court, Glassford and Mills appeared for sentence.
Glassford’s lawyer Charles Ferguson claimed she was a “family person” devoted to her 12-year-old daughter.
She did not accept that she was involved in the offence but realised how serious the matter was, added the lawyer.
Sheriff Nicola Stewart described heroin as a “scourge” in the Hamilton area, and said Glassford and Mills had clearly involved themselves in the distribution of Class A drugs purely for profit.
Glassford was sentenced to 45 months’ jail and Mills was handed a 63-month prison term.
The sentences will be welcomed by police, who have been engaged in a bitter war with South Lanarkshire’s drug dealers, and people in Hillhouse.
One resident, who is 30 and has lived there for five years, said: “Glassford has been operating in Hillhouse as a drug baron for about 10 years .
“She sells heroin and cocaine herself and also sells it on to other dealers.
“People in Hillhouse will be delighted when they find out that she is locked up but the sentence is too lenient; she will be out in just two years.”
Superintendent Ian Callander, of Hamilton Police, said: “I am pleased that through our actions we have prevented £35,000-worth of heroin reaching the streets of South Lanarkshire and bringing further misery to families in our community.
“We are determined to do everything we can to deter and disrupt those involved in illicit drug dealing.”
Mr Callander said that since April 1 this year, over 30 individuals had been reported to the procurator fiscal in connection with the illegal supply of drugs in the Hamilton, Blantyre and Larkhall areas.
He added: “We do, however, need the assistance of the public and would appeal to people to contact us if they have information about drug dealing in their area.”

[bananaskin]

Either way, and it's impossible to say really 'when' the 'bust' took place, though one could safely assume it was before 26/1, according to the Home Office, the current law states that the penalties for weed possession are max 5 years and supply, dealing, production and trafficking max 14 years but that is at cat B and according to the wiki maximum 2 and 14 respectively for cat C. This can only go to Crown, there is no way the magistrates will deal with it.
Smack is 7 years and life max.

It depends how the judge feels about weed though, Kit knew someone who got 3 years for supplying, the very minimum the judge could give at that time, but that was way before skunk, and the judge's personal view.

Probably about 7 years for your friend.