A drug dealer has lost his appeal against his six-year jail term.
Daniel David Hamblett, aged 20, had pleaded guilty to a charge of possession cocaine with intent to supply the class A drug.
He was sentenced to six years’ custody in April by Deemster Alastair Montgomerie.
But his lawyers lodged an appeal, contending that his jail term was likely to be double that which would have been passed had he been sentenced in England.
But the appeal court dismissed his appeal, ruling that it ‘could not be concluded that the sentence imposed by Deemster Montgomerie was manifestly wrong or so excessive as to appear wrong in principle or that it was imposed by way of an error in principle’.
The court heard that on August 4 2011, police officers executed a search warrant at the appellant’s Port-e-Chee Avenue home in Douglas.
Hamblett was not at home but returned by taxi.
In a shed at the back of the premises officers found a set of electronic scales, an open white carrier bag containing five wraps of cocaine and a second white carrier bag containing the same drug.
The total weight of the cocaine was 128.6 grams which had a street value in the Isle of Man of £7,760.
A search of Hamblett’s bedroom revealed a drug dealer’s ‘tick list’ – probably indicating money owed for drugs – and in another bedroom there were empty plastic wraps and a plastic bag with the corners cut out which had probably been used to create wraps. Examination of a mobile phone left in the taxi by the appellant revealed a large number of text messages that indicated he was involved in the supply of Class A drugs, including cocaine.
When arrested and interviewed, Hamblett denied dealing in drugs or having seen the cocaine or other drugs paraphernalia.
Two weeks after he was charged, the appellant claimed in a signed statement that he was merely looking after the cocaine for someone else.
In their judgment, the appeal court judges said the Manx courts were entitled to adopt different sentencing guidelines from those adopted in courts in England and Wales where circumstances justified this.
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