Drug trafficker has sentence reduced for being manifestly excessive

Liverpool man gets 2.5 year reduction

A drug trafficker from Liverpool who helped send more than £30,000 worth of drugs to the Island has had his sentence reduced.

The High Court of Justice of the Isle of Man has ruled that the sentence handed down to Paul Joseph Rowan was manifestly excessive.

The Garston man was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in custody after pleading guilty to being concerned in the production of cocaine and cannabis on or about 13 March 2020.

He’d also admitted being concerned in the production of the class A substance again on 14 July 2020.

'Parcels'

Packages containing the drugs were intercepted at the Isle of Man Post Office, on those dates, after being posted to the Island.

The first parcel contained 56.4 grams of cocaine and 984.9 grams of cannabis with a combined street value of £25,338.

The second parcel contained 63.5 grams of cocaine with a street value of £6,350.

Rowan’s fingerprints were discovered on the exterior of both of them; officers also determined that a telephone linked to him had been used in an attempt to locate the parcel.

Although the telephone number was known to police it wasn’t attributed to Rowan until sometime in 2022 when he gave it to officers in Merseyside after reporting that his car had been set on fire.

'Arrest'

Rowan was arrested and returned to the Isle of Man where he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity telling the court he was £4,000 in debt to drug dealers in Liverpool due to his own personal drug use.

He said due to the Covid lockdown he’d been unable to earn money and claimed that unless he did what the dealers said there would be ‘very serious repercussions'.

Rowan also claimed he’d had a knife put to his neck and, due to the failure of the three parcels reaching their intended recipients and his refusal to send more, had his car set alight in 2022.

He was sentenced on 26 January 2024.

'Appeal' 

During the appeal Rowan’s advocate said the aggravating factors identified by the sentencing deemster did not justify the aggravation of his offending behaviour to the extent of the 15 months custody imposed for them.

The factors identified included Rowan’s criminal record, the group activity, financial gain and sophistication of the offence.

Judge of Appeal Cross KC and Acting Deemster Gough found that whilst it was right that the deemster considered Rowan's previous convictions it had been ‘more than counter-balanced’ by references which showed he was in employment and had an ‘excellent work record’.

In addition they queried the ‘group activity’ feature saying a ‘very broad definition’ of the meaning had been applied; they also questioned the sophistication of the offence adding: "...sentencers should look at the arithmetic, stand back, apply another coat of thought to the sentence and then decided whether the total sentence reflects the criminality.”

'Judgement'

Determining that the sentence imposed was manifestly excessive the appeal deemsters reduced it by two and a half years meaning Rowan will serve a total sentence of eight years in custody.

You can read their judgement in full HERE.