18-year-old Avoids Prison for Supply of Class A Drugs

Case study summary

Our client was charged with supply of crack cocaine and diamorphine. Having just turned 18-years-old he was driven from Manchester to supply drugs in Ipswich. We presented powerful mitigation to the court highlighting his vulnerability and he received a suspended sentence.

Case study

Our firm was approached by our client's partner whilst he was detained in custody in Suffolk. Having been arrested on suspicion of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply, the police strongly believed he had swallowed some of these drugs. As an 18 year old, in a part of the UK where he had no connections, he was incredibly frightened. We knew we had to begin work right away to support him through this process.

Before we could help, we had to take over the case from a previous firm. They strongly denied any accusation by our client that they had failed to advise and care for him. However, our greatest motivation for stepping in was offering a firm close to his home in Manchester as opposed to Suffolk. The court saw our logic in this and we were allowed to represent our client almost right away.

Our next challenge was to release our client from custody. We instructed a specialist barrister who was able to present robust submissions that the police's justification for detaining our client were false. He had attended hospital where no drugs were detected on X-Ray and so we submitted that an extension to his detention was unfounded. Thankfully the court agreed and he was released back to Manchester on bail.

With our client back home, our focus could finally turn to the case itself. Our main concern was how he got to Ipswich and why he was there. This was not a question that he could easily answer due to his worries of what might happen if he told the truth. Whilst his actions did not support him being a victim of modern slavery, our specialist lawyers could spot right away that he was a vulnerable person and was chosen to run drugs in county lines for this reason.

After many meetings with him, we were able to build a trust with our client which meant he finally gave us the whole truth. Our client was guilty of the offence but there was a difficult set of circumstances which led us to enter a basis of plea. We carefully drafted this to inform the court of the past trauma he had suffered which led him to be manipulated into this offending.

Knowing he was at a high risk of being sent to prison, we instructed an expert psychologist to meet with him and provide a report to help with mitigation. This was crucial in being able to provide expert evidence showing not only that he had one of the lowest emotional intelligence scores due to trauma but that he needed professional help to overcome this. Prison would not help him but hurt him further.

On the day of sentence, with mitigation prepared by us and presented by our specialist barrister, our client received a suspended sentence. Being sent to prison was a very strong possibility and so this was a great result allowing him to go home and focus on moving forward.