PWITS Class A Drugs - Receives Suspended Sentence

Case study summary

Our client was a working man who sold drugs to fuel his own addictions. He instructed us to represent him at his Magistrates' Court hearing and at his sentencing hearing at the Crown Court. We drafted careful and robust mitigation and he received a suspended sentence.

Case study

Our firm was approached by our client's sister over 18 months after he had been arrested and interviewed by police as he had been charged for Possession with Intent to Supply Class A and Class B drugs.

He explained that he had become involved in the sale of drugs because he needed to find a way to fund his own drug and gambling addictions. Since his arrest he had sought to address these issues and had joined support groups to tackle his addiction. He had made efforts to distance himself from the life he had lived and focused on gaining new qualifications to help him in his life.

We immediately began preparing detailed mitigation on behalf of our client, focusing on his lack of previous involvement with police, supportive family, and all of the progress that he had made to tackle his addictions and better himself after his initial arrest.

We also instructed a specialist barrister to represent our client at court. using the mitigation we had gathered on our client's behalf, the barrister was able to advocate effectively in court and explain the situation that our client was in prior to his arrest, and the steps he had taken since to better himself. The judge was persuaded as to our client's good nature and that he had taken every step possible to rectify the situation after his arrest.

The result was that our client received a suspended sentence and avoided an immediate prison sentence, something that was a real possibility in a case of this seriousness, allowing him to return home with his family.