Sark resident imports cannabis in peanut butter jar

Tuesday 21 August 2018

A Sark resident has appeared before Guernsey's Magistrates court charged with importing cannabis into the larger island through a package which was intercepted by Guernsey Post.

Callum Hall, 29, had been ready to enter pleas when he appeared in court yesterday, and his advocate indicated they would be guilty, however Judge McKerrell said that he was not prepared to deal with the case and he sent it up to the Royal Court.

The court heard how on 26 April 2018, a package was intercepted by Guernsey Post at Envoy House. They found the package to contain a repacked Amazon box and the parcel was addressed to the defendant with a handwritten address. The packet had been sent from the UK and had a Yorkshire post mark.

Within the Amazon box investigators found a 700 gram jar of peanut butter that when x-rayed was found to contain a package wrapped up in a sandwich bag. Inside this officers found 21.25 grams of cannabis.

Pictured: The drugs were found inside a 700g jar of peanut butter.

On 27 April 2018, Hill, was arrested as he tried to board a boat to Sark. He confirmed his address and he was told why he was being arrested and was given the usual caution about anything he said.

Whilst under caution Hill said: "This will be a thing of the past in the future." When questioned as to why that would be he said: "With all the talk of legalisation."

When the judge indicated he was going to send the case to the Royal Court, where the sentencing powers are higher, Hill's defence advocate stated that he had hoped that the matter would be dealt with by the Magistrates Court and he told the judge that his client was ready to enter pleas and he indicated they would be guilty. He also cited a recent importation of cannabis case where the amounts were double the amounts of the defendant in this case and said that this person was given a nine month prison sentence by the Royal Court who had said it could have been dealt with by the island's Magistrates instead.

Judge McKerrell was resolute in his decision to not accept jursistiction and noted that there was a degree of sophistication in the level of concealment, and he further added that "if the Royal Court think that I should deal with it then they will tell me."

The case will now go through the court system until it is set for sentencing by the Royal Court later this year.