SENTENCING STATEMENTS
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HMA v Kurtis James Taylor
Jul 23, 2024
On sentencing, Judge Douglas Brown told Kurtis Taylor:
"You pled guilty to a charge of being concerned in the supply of cocaine on 5 September 2023. You were stopped by the police that day while driving a van northwards on the M74 motorway. The van had been modified for transporting controlled drugs in that there was a concealed compartment below the rear seats, accessed by means of a hydraulic mechanism fitted to those seats and operated by a switch behind the handbrake and a button on the key fob. In that compartment there was 10 Kg of cocaine with a high level of purity of not less than 77%.
The wholesale value of this cocaine was between £380,000 and £420,000 and the potential street value, if sold in the most common street deal of 1 gram, was between £801,000 and £1,002,000. In terms of your plea you accepted that you knew that the van contained a very large quantity of controlled drugs and that the purpose in transporting these drugs from England to Scotland was for supply to others for sale and distribution.
Trafficking in class A drugs such as cocaine, particularly when it involves a such a substantial quantity as in this case, is a serious offence which is likely to result in a severe sentence, not only to punish the offender but also to protect the public by deterring others who may be tempted to become involved in this activity.
As regards your explanation for committing this offence, being that you were under pressure to pay a drug debt of £5000, it was not suggested that this was the only option. You obviously knew that in transporting these drugs you were involved in a large-scale drug supply operation and the fact that a drug debt of £5000 was to be cleared by making this one delivery would have emphasised the significance of your role in it.
Taking all relevant factors into account, I consider that an appropriate sentence is 8 years imprisonment. You are entitled to some discount based on the utilitarian value of your guilty plea but this was a very straightforward case and there was a delay of some 8 months before you pled guilty. In these circumstances an appropriate discount is 2 years, which means that the sentence is 6 years imprisonment and this will run from 15 May of this year."
23 July 2024