Not Guilty of Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs

Case study summary

Our client was a full-time mum to two young children who was tried as a defendant in a large scale drugs conspiracy at Croydon Crown Court. We fought for disclosure and presented expert medical evidence to the court. She was found not guilty by the jury in a unanimous verdict.

Case study

Our client was a full-time mum to two healthy young schoolchildren. When faced with a parent’s worst nightmare, the prospect of long-term separation from her own children, her world began to fall apart.  A casual cannabis smoker our client was the victim of her own naivety having allowed her “friends” to leave items with her for safekeeping. These “friends” had been the subject of covert surveillance for over a year and the police decided to strike and arrest them after they were seen entering our client’s property with a large package and leaving empty-handed.

She was arrested at home in front of her two small children. The police found 2kg of cocaine in her kitchen cupboard wrapped up in a Disney carrier bag. She was being used and was a victim but the police were simply not interested in her story. Once the handcuffs had been placed on her wrists the only view the police had of her was a co-conspirator and drug dealer with no credit or worth. They examined her mobile phone and found nothing but texts asking for cannabis. They investigated her bank accounts and found nothing but the most basic of benefit payments. Most importantly her fingerprints were never found on the Disney bag.

It was clear from the beginning that she was so emotionally distraught by events that she would not be able to give evidence at a Crown Court Trial. We obtained her medical records and found an expert psychologist to write a report on her state of mind. We had to provide as much medical evidence as possible so a jury could understand why she was not able to tell them her own story. 

During the trial, the prosecution revealed the existence of a covert recording. It was the first phone call made after her arrest to her boyfriend. The call was presented to the court as a transcript which reported that she had told her boyfriend that she ‘knew what was in there’ when referring the bag. When pressed for a recording of this conversation the prosecution provided us with a copy so poor it was almost entirely inaudible.

We asked for the original but unbelievably, the prosecution refused to cooperate with their duty to disclose it. We knew that if the transcript of the call was correct then a jury would almost certainly convict our client, so we went to work. First through in-house technical experts who spent hours enhancing the audio, and then the old-fashioned way. We listened and listened, repeatedly until we were sure that what the transcript said was not just wrong, it was a total fabrication. When presented with our findings the prosecution simply said they no longer chose to rely on it. There was certainly no apology.

The jury unanimously found our client not guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and she was able to carry on living her life.  We fought tooth and nail in the face of serious adversity at an extraordinarily emotional trial, and we won. Justice was done in the face of blind ambition from the prosecution who were never willing to consider an alternative reality