Cocaine mule couple sentenced to prison

Monday 02 October 2017

A 27-year-old man, and his 29-year-old girlfriend, have been sentenced to seven, and five, years in prison respectively by the Royal Court after they attempted to smuggle up to £16,500 of cocaine into Jersey by concealing packages internally.

Steven Baker and Emma Lynch, who are from Liverpool, were stopped by Customs Officers at the Elizabeth Terminal after they had travelled from Poole on 1 July 2017 with their car.

Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit told the Court that the couple said they were visiting Jersey for one night to celebrate their seven year anniversary.

They initially refused to be searched or x-rayed, until Baker admitted they had cocaine inside them. They were both carrying packages internally, wrapped in condoms, which contained a total of 165.75 grams of cocaine. The total street value of the cocaine was estimated to be between £13,500 and £16,500.

The Court heard that during his interview, Baker stated he used cocaine mainly at weekends and that his drug use had got him in significant debt, so much so that he owed  "a few grand." He explained he intended to use much of the cocaine during his stay and to take the remainder back to the UK.

He explained he had packaged the drugs himself and asked his partner to carry the larger package. He said he didn't want to leave the drugs at home for fear they would be stolen. He denied it was his plan to sell the drugs in Jersey, explaining he didn't know anyone in the island to sell them to. He also denied agreeing to bring the drugs to Jersey to pay off his debt. 

Crown Advocate Maletroit said that Baker's version was not credible in light of the commercial quantity the couple was carrying, and that they were regarded as couriers.

He called the attempted smuggling a joint venture of which Baker was the organiser. He noted that Lynch had had a very difficult early life, had suffered from periods of depression and alcohol and drugs misuse. He concluded that there was nothing exceptional in the case to allow him to deviate from the sentencing guidelines and he moved for a seven-year prison sentence for Baker and six years for Lynch. 

Speaking for Baker, Advocate James Bell, said that he was of previously good character and that by reason of drugs, he owed money to "the wrong type of people in Liverpool." He told Court that Baker had been threatened, as well as his family members, and that the proposition to bring drugs to Jersey was brought to him. He explained that Baker had accepted because of a desperate set of circumstances, and that he didn't consider the idea of committing a criminal offence an easy-way out of his difficult predicament. He assured the Court that Baker was ashamed of his actions, "very regretful and genuinely remorseful," and that he regretted his girlfriend, and mother of his two children, had been involved.

Advocate Michael Haines, who was defending Lynch, explained that she was a passive participant in the importation, having simply agreed to accompany her partner to Jersey. He describer her as a very vulnerable person who had experienced tragedies in her early life.

Handing out his sentence, Royal Court Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, who was sitting with Jurats Crill, Olsen, Blampied, Grime, Ramsden and Pitman, said: "The couple has two young children. It is a tragic consequence of their actions that the children have been deprived of contact with their parents and of their care for many years. This offers no mitigation for the defendants (...) who were so immersed in a drug-taking lifestyle that they were prepared to undertake this importation together." 

He then sentenced Baker to seven years but reduced Lynch's sentence to five years in light of her personal circumstances, which he described as tragic.