Crown Advocate Carla Carvalho, prosecuting, told the Royal Court during yesterday’s sentencing hearing that Massay had travelled to Birmingham to Jersey, where she and her partner were stopped by Customs Officers.
“The defendant told the officers that they had flown over for a romantic weekend, which they had booked a couple of days before travel, and that they were staying at the Savoy Hotel,” said Crown Advocate Carvalho.
Massay was searched and the drugs were found in her pocket. When asked what it was, she replied that it was “coke”.
Pictured: Massay’s importation was discovered by Customs Officers and she was sentenced in the Royal Court on Tuesday.
“The defendant stated that she booked the travel for her and her partner using her mother’s bank cards and that this was her fifth visit to Jersey,” Crown Advocate Carvalho said.
The court heard that Massay used cocaine every two to three weeks and that both her partner and mother disapproved of her drug habit.
She claimed the cocaine, which had a purity of 81%, was for personal use, but Crown Advocate Carvalho described her as a “drugs courier” whose “unsophisticated concealment” suggested that she was well-trusted in her role.
The Court heard that JCIS Officer Jason Harrison, a drug-trafficking expert, had estimated the street value of the drugs as being between £12,600 and £23,000.
“Officer Harrison opines that due to the high purity, the drugs would have been sold at the higher end of the price range. However, if it were adulterated to typical street level quality, the weight could be bulked up to between approximately 210 and 316 grams,” the Court was told.
Advocate Julian Gollop, defending, maintained that Massay was carrying the drugs for personal use.
Advocate Gollop also alluded to Massay’s previous good character, no prior convictions, supportive family members, good employment record and her early guilty plea as mitigating factors in the case.
Commissioner Sir William Bailhache, sitting with Jurats Collette Crill, Elizabeth Dulake, David Hughes, Andrew Cornish and Charles Blampied, said that Massay was involved as a courier in commercial importation and did not agree that the drugs were for personal use.
He added that Massay’s guilty plea was all but inevitable.