A TEENAGER considered ‘no longer suitable’ for community service has been given two years’ youth detention for drug offences.
Kahmal Ali Coughlan (19) was sentenced by the Royal Court for being concerned in the supply of class A and B drugs, as well as trying to conceal cash he knew would be seized.
In October 2021, the States police searched the home of someone known to Coughlan and discovered phone messages between the two, prompting a search of his home address in which several items – including 678 milligrams of herbal cannabis and 688 milligrams of cannabis – £338.35 in cash and his mobile phone were seized.
The phone contained several messages relating to the supply of controlled drugs and search terms including ‘drug sentencing and penalties’ were also discovered.
Coughlan provided the Crown with a basis of plea accepting that the phone messages referred to 100 doses of LSD, two grams of cannabis and two ecstasy pills.
Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, told the Royal Court that during his police interviews, Coughlan said he was not the person ordering the drugs online, but that a friend of his was.
He said that if a friend of his asked for drugs and another had drugs, he would tell that friend, acting only as a ‘middleman’.
The court also heard that on 30 November 2021, while remanded at HMP La Moye, Coughlan told his then girlfriend to withdraw money out of his bank account.
She withdrew £360 from Coughlan’s Lloyds Bank account, and, during a police interview, he confirmed that he had asked her to do it – as he had been told it would be frozen.
He stated the funds in the account were legitimate money from employment and he wanted to withdraw it so it would not be seized.
A black rucksack with a white plastic tub and an orange grinder – containing 26.36 grams of herbal cannabis and 78 milligrams of herbal cannabis – was also found during a search executed at the home address of Coughlan’s mother in December.
Advocate Hallam informed the court that Coughlan – who has previous drug-related convictions – was also appearing for a review of a 240-hour community service order imposed in 2020 for drug offences which he failed to complete on multiple occasions, leaving 15 hours outstanding.
The court heard that a member of the probation service ‘no longer considers the defendant suitable for community service’.
Advocate Nicholas Mière, defending, argued that Coughlan had contended with delayed legal proceedings and noted that some of the counts were added during an amendment of the initial indictment.
He stressed that his client was ‘not trying to escape punishment’, but added that ‘that punishment must be fair’.
He also cited Coughlan’s good relations with members of child services and said that, with continued assistance, the teenager could still ‘realise his potential’.
Delivering the sentence, Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, presiding, said Coughlan would receive ‘full credit’ for his guilty pleas and also acknowledged the teenager had completed the ‘lion’s share’ of his hours.
However, he pointed out that giving Coughlan community service was no longer among the options available to the court.
‘We hope you get the best out of the help you will be offered in custody and when you are released you make the right choices,’ he added.
Jurats Robert Christensen, Michael Entwhistle, Rozanne Thomas, Pamela Pitman and Jerry Ramsden were also sitting.
