Sentence doubled for witholding phone

Friday 10 January 2020

A 21-year-old man, who was caught with nearly 200g of cannabis resin, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison after refusing to give Guernsey Police the pin code to his phone.

Guernsey Police were in the Vale when a neighbour said they had noticed something suspicious at Benjamin Prevel's home address.

Officers noticed someone come out of the house and quickly put his hands in his pockets. He was searched but nothing was found.

However, they found some illegal substances in the nearby area and decided to search Prevel's home with help from a police dog. They eventually came across 197.47g of Class B cannabis resin hidden underneath a loose plank of decking, along with some digital scales.

Pictured: A police dog sniffed out the cannabis resin (file image).

Prevel, who was at the address with two others at the time, quickly owned up, telling the officers "it's all mine, it's got nothing to do with them".

The defendant was arrested and his mobile phone was seized. When ordered to tell Guernsey Police his pin code he refused and later admitted there was evidence on his phone which incriminated others.

Prevel, who has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, claimed the cannabis was for personal use and that he had gotten into the habit of using about four grams each evening to help him sleep.

Although officers said the defendant's bank account statements suggested he would not have enough money to support such a habit, Prevel's defence Advocate Sam Steel said that was a "little bit naive" as it was based on street prices.

Pictured: The defendant has been sentenced to 12 months in prison.

 Advocate Steel explained to the court how the defendant had previously had an "unhealthy relationship" with alcohol which he had managed to overcome, but had replaced "one coping strategy with another" in the form of cannabis. He said Prevel had sought help for his addiction before being arrested but has not yet been able to stop using the drug.

Judge Gary Perry gave Prevel credit for his early guilty pleas, but noted the "seriousness" of the offences. He told the defendant that refusing to give officers access to his phone was "as serious if not more serious than the drugs offences".

He was sentenced to six months in prison for the possession of cannabis and five months for withholding information on his phone.

By committing a crime, Prevel was in breach of a suspended sentence from 2017. A further one month was added to his sentence as a result, taking it to a total of 12 months.

Pictured top: The defendant refused to tell Guernsey Police his phone's pin code.