The Bailiff has criticised an “unacceptable” delay in the progress of a drugs case in which the jailing of two men this week occurred more than four years after the offences were committed.
John Hutcheson (50) and Andrew Ramsbottom (49) were sentenced to prison terms for drug-supplying and money-laundering yesterday after the Royal Court heard that a total of £110,000 had been collected through the sale of the class A drug tetrahydrocannabinol.
Lawyers for both men argued that non-custodial sentences should be imposed, partly as a result of the delay, with the offences dating from the period between February 2021 and September 2022, but no charges being brought until April of this year.
A panel of Jurats decided that the two men should be jailed, but the Bailiff, Robert MacRae, presiding, said there was sympathy for the two men, and two fellow defendants, as a result of the length of the judicial process.
“It’s unacceptable for defendants to have to wait so long to learn their fate,” he said.
“Almost nothing happened for at least two years [prior to the case first coming to court in April].
“We are told lessons have been learned [in respect of the delay] and I hope they have.”
Tetrahydrocannabinol is a cannabinoid which is the principal psychoactive constituent found in cannabis. The court heard that it is expected to be reclassified as a class B drug later this month, but was ranked class A at the time of the offending in 2020 and 2021.
Crown Advocate Lauren Taylor, prosecuting, said Hutcheson had been involved at the highest level of the Jersey-based group, with analysis of his phone showing numerous messages exchanged with UK dealers named as “Big Stu” and “Big G”.
The court heard that during police searches of Hutcheson’s flat, a sum of £28,900 in cash was found, along with 940 tablets of tramadol, eight bottles of liquid tramadol, weighing scales and a small amount of cannabis resin.
Advocate Taylor said that analysis of Hutcheson’s bank account showed that £80,000 had been paid to his UK contact, while during the same period he received multiple payments from Ramsbottom totalling £47,000.
The court was told that Hutcheson had been concerned with the importation of THC to Jersey, regularly exchanging messages with Ramsbottom, who was described as being at the “next highest level” of the operation, selling THC directly to users but also working with others, including his partner, Kelly Louise Vallois (45), and her 25-year-old son Xavier Vallois, to sell the THC.
Advocate James Bell, defending Hutcheson, said there were “exceptional circumstances” that should, he argued, lead to a non-custodial sentence. These included the “incredible, inordinate amount of delay” in bringing the case to court, as well as significant physical and mental-health issues his client had experienced since an accident at work in 2015. Hutcheson was “not a callous, commercial criminal mastermind”, the lawyer added.
Advocate James Corbett, defending Ramsbottom, also referenced the delay and mental-health problems suffered by his client, including a “shattering nervous breakdown” in 2020.
Hutcheson was jailed for three-and-a-half years for five counts of supplying the class A drug and an additional year for three money-laundering offences – a total of four-and-a-half years. He pleaded guilty on all counts.
Ramsbottom pleaded guilty to one charge of supplying drugs and to one count of money-laundering, and received consecutive prison sentences of two-and-a-half years and six months – a total sentence of three years.
Mr MacRae said that the charge of supplying a class A drug to which Kelly Vallois had pleaded guilty was above the threshold for a custodial sentence, but that the court was mindful that she and Ramsbottom had four children aged under 16. A sentence of 240 hours’ community service combined with an 18-month probation order was handed down.
After hearing that Xavier Vallois was aged 20 and 21 during the period of offending, and had a steady job, the court imposed a total sentence of 180 hours’ community services for supplying THC and laundering proceeds of £8,400 – he admitted both charges.
Jurats Dulake, Le Heuzé, Entwhistle, Berry and Powell were sitting.