Chef gets 'porridge' for smuggling up to £400k of cannabis

Thursday 11 January 2018

A chef has been sentenced to four years and four months in prison after he was caught smuggling cannabis with a street value between £300,000 and £400,000.

43-year-old Krzysztof Kulik was stopped by customs officers at Elizabeth Terminal when he arrived into Jersey from Poole on 17 July 2017.

Kulik said he was in the island to look for work as he was a chef by trade, stating he had appointments with various restaurants. But when the officer pressed him on this, Kulik couldn’t name the restaurants, leading the officers to search his vehicle.

During the search of his black BMW, eight cling-film wrapped brown taped packages of cannabis were discovered below the floor lining of the boot compartment. When the customs officers arrested Kulik, he responded: “What is that, this is bull***t.”

The 210 individual bars of cannabis resin, found in the packages, weighed a total of 21 kilograms and have a street value between £300,000 and £400,000.

Kulik later admitted he had met an acquaintance through his job who offered him a way to make some ‘easy money’. He initially declined the £7,000 offer but then accepted as he had money problems and felt pressured by the male, who he described as "of Russian origin."

The 43-year-old's BMW, which he was borrowing from a friend, was taken away for a couple of hours before being returned to his home in the UK with the drugs inside and £700 cash to cover expenses.

He told officers that once he realised that he was becoming involved in drug trafficking, he asked for half of the £7,000 fee he had been promised, but was flatly refused.

Pictured: Kulik pleaded guilty to importing the drugs in the Royal Court in September 2017.

Kulik pleaded guilty to the charge of knowingly importing a controlled drug on 29 September 2017. During sentencing in the Royal Court yesterday, the Crown explained that the maximum sentence handed for drug trafficking is eight years imprisonment, but as a social inquiry report had found the defendant was of good character, a low risk to the public and didn't have a criminal record, they were requesting a sentence of four years and six months to be handed down as Advocate Chris Baglin reasoned: "His financial problems, and contact with criminals increase his risk. (...) His guilty plea in light of the drugs found in his car was inevitable." 

The Prosecution also called for a confiscation order of £205 to be taken from the £700 proceeds Kulik had received through the crime, and a deportation order. 

Defending, Advocate James Bell said his client didn't oppose the confiscation order or the deportation order from Jersey but asked the Bailiff, Sir William Bailhache for a sentence of under four years as it would limit the deportation order to Jersey, as a sentence of more than four years may mean he could be deported from the UK back to Poland, away from his girlfriend of eight years, and her two children who he is supporting.

The Bailiff responded to Advocate Bell's request: "...if a UK national was given a sentence of four-and-a-half years for a similar offence why should your client get three years and 11 months?"

Advocate Bell urged the court to "think of the bigger picture" as this could influence the deportation order suggesting they consider the punishment and impact to his client's life and family. 

Pictured: Kulik has taken on the role of head chef and mentored other inmates in the prison kitchen while on remand. 

Explaining why Kulik made such a "catastrophic decision" to smuggle the drugs, Advocate Bell told the court: "Mr Kulik is a mature man who has pursued a legitimate career as a chef. He's been dedicated, hardworking and made significant achievements in his career. He has been supporting his long term girlfriend of eight years in the UK, whose two children have become his children. He has suffered from personal health problems, which saw him hospitalised in early 2016 for acute appendicitis which lost him months of work (...) he also needed treatment later in 2016 for liver disease. This turn of events meant he ran into debt.

"This really is a 'one off' mistake of a 42-year-old man (at time of arrest) with no previous convictions. (...) He's already served a nine month sentence on remand where he has effectively become the head chef in prison and mentored other inmates in the prison kitchen," added Advocate Bell. 

Handing down the sentence, the Bailiff said he had taken into account Kulik's positive contribution of monitoring younger inmates in the kitchen at La Moye prison, therefore was giving him a sentence of four years and four months. The confiscation and deportation orders were also granted as the Bailiff said: "...(Kulik's) continued presence in the island would be a detriment to the island and community."

"We do not think Advocate Bell's solutions are right to avoid deportation order in the UK." But the Bailiff added that as Jersey's sentencing policy is more severe than the UK's policy on importation of drugs, it would be a "compelling factor to be taken into account when the Secretary of State considers deportation from the UK."