Basis of Plea

I heard a great basis of plea to a charge of possession with intent to supply cannabis recently.

The facts of the case were that the Defendant had been with a group of other youths, they had approached a second group of youths on a bus and offered to sell them cannabis. The Defendant had not been seen with any actual drugs but was nonetheless part of the group offering to sell drugs. The first group of youths left whereupon the second group of youths phoned the Police. The Defendant was the only one of the first group of youths arrested, but when he was he was in possession of 8 grammes of herbal cannabis.

The Defendant's basis of plea was that he had spoken with a drug dealer earlier that day and been told he could make a lot of money selling drugs so had decided to take a small quantity of cannabis on a credit basis. The Defendant had then been out with his friends who had also taken advantage of this new career but the Defendant had then had a change of heart. He thought of the consequences of drug dealing and decided that he would return the cannabis to the dealer. He had made a conscious decision to not to sell drugs to the second group of youths but accepted that he was guilty of possession with intent to supply by way of joint enterprise.

The reason that this basis of plea was so great was because the solicitor had the gaul to try to run the basis of plea in Court. The result was that with no previous convictions the Defendant went to prison for four months.