Former Farang Teacher Gets 6½ Years In Jail

[george]

Cocaine importer jailed for 6 years

A JERSEYMAN who imported cocaine into Guernsey was sent to prison for six and a half years in the Royal Court yesterday.

John Irvine, 32, admitted importing 23g of the Class A drug, concealed internally, on a flight from London Gatwick on 16 December last year.

The drug had a street value in Guernsey of £2,100.

Crown Advocate Philip Robey told the court that the defendant had worked as a teacher in Thailand. At the time of his arrest he was visiting his parents in Jersey and travelling in the UK and Albania.

Irvine had appeared before criminal courts on two previous occasions.

The most significant of these was in Japan in October 1996 when he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for importing 1.5kg of opium on a flight from Thailand.

He was released in June 2000 and deported to Jersey.

On his arrival in Guernsey, Irvine was stopped by a police officer. The defendant said he had come to the island for two days to visit an old friend. He had come to the UK via Albania trying to arrange employment or education for Albanian people.

He denied possessing drugs but a test on his wallet proved positive for cocaine. He denied having drugs concealed internally but agreed to give a urine sample that also proved positive.

More than 24 hours after his arrest, Irvine instructed his advocate to inform Customs officers that he had a package of cocaine, weighing 20 grams, concealed internally. The package was retrieved.

Analysis later revealed that the drug consisted of cocaine in its hydrochloride form; it was 40% pure.

Later that day, a Customs officer found in the defendant’s belongings Western Union money-transfer forms relating to a total of £700 that had been transferred to Irvine’s fiancee in Thailand. Irvine later said this money was borrowed from his mother.

In interview, Irvine said the tests on his wallet and urine had proved positive because he had used the drug two days before coming to Guernsey. He earned £500 per month as a teacher in Thailand but had no bank account or savings.

Prior to coming to Guernsey he had visited an old girlfriend in Manchester where he had bought the drug on the streets for £800. He had taken the money from his father’s bank account while in Jersey without his knowledge to buy the drug. He had also bought an air ticket to Guernsey and had wrapped the cocaine in three condoms and hidden them internally before the flight. He maintained throughout that the drug was for his own use as he had a drug habit and used half a gram of cocaine per day.

Through Deputy Bailiff Geoffrey Rowland, Jurat Mike Wilson asked why, if Irvine was using half a gram of cocaine per day, he had imported nearly 46 days’ worth on a two-day trip to Guernsey.

Defence Advocate Sarah Kelly said her client had not been thinking straight at the time and now recognised the error of his ways.

Jurat Alan Bisson asked what level of teaching qualification the defendant had.

Advocate Kelly said he had done an English teaching course through a private company in Thailand but he was not qualified to teach here.

She said her client had received no treatment for his drug problem while in the Japanese prison. Conditions there were very tough and he had been close to having a nervous breakdown when he came out. The case had been a high profile one in the media and embarrassed his family, none of whom was in court to support him, counsel said.

His fiancee in Thailand was dependent on her client for money for upkeep but he had made no decision on when he planned to return to the country.

The Deputy Bailiff said that as a Jerseyman and previous visitor to Guernsey, the defendant would have known of the strict sentencing policies in the Channel Islands for importing drugs.

The court regarded Irvine’s claim that the drug was for his own use as implausible but said that even if it had been, it was no reason for a lesser penalty as any importation only added to the island’s stock.

‘The amount is not classified by this court as a small amount, but a relatively substantial one,’ he said.

The starting penalty for a such an amount was nine years in prison but, given Irvine’s guilty plea, a discount of 25% would be applied.

He then sentenced Irvine to six-and-a-half years in prison.

--ThisIsGuernsey 2004-03-31