Sentencing pushed back 'pending police investigation'

Thursday 13 June 2019

The sentencing of a couple facing a lengthy list of drug charges has been pushed back to the end of the summer, to allow Guernsey Police time to investigate a new incident involving one of them.

Mark Bichard and Lisa Le Page will now be sentenced by the Royal Court on Friday 23 August - assuming police have wrapped up this new investigation.

If more time after that date is needed to allow everything to be dealt with in one go, Judge Russell Finch said he was willing to allow that. The Court wants to be able to sentence Bichard for all charges he may end up facing in one go, to abide by the totality principal. This principal applies when a court needs to impose multiple sentences - it will allow him to be sentenced fairly because a judge needs to think about the aggregate of sentences he might usually pass. 

Currently, the new investigation has not seen any charges actually brought against Bichard. 

Le Page's lawyer, Advocate Sara Mallet, told the court her client wanted to have the matter dealt with as quickly as possible, but had reluctantly agreed not to object to the adjournment. The delay will be used in her defence though, because it is something entirely out of her hands. The prosecution and Bichard's lawyer agreed with the adjournment. 

Le Page and Bichard are together facing 16 charges, all of which they pleaded guilty to at the start of April.

All of the charges are linked to supplying, cultivating and importing cannabis and cannabis resin through 2017 and 2018. They were both bailed until their next sentencing date, and the prosecution said if they received any update from the police, they would pass it on to Judge Finch to make any changes necessary to the current arrangements.