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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Drugs dealer claims rights breached
The Western Mail Friday 09 Feb 2001 A CONVICTED drug dealer who was ordered to hand over the financial proceeds of his crimes has claimed his human rights were breached. Steven Phillips, 36, from Cardiff, was jailed for nine years at Newport Crown Court in 1996 for importing large quantities of cannabis resin into the UK. The trial judge warned him he would face an extra two years imprisonment unless he handed over the estimated £91,400 proceeds of six years of drug trafficking - including his house. In 1997 Phillips was refused leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence, including the judge's confiscation order. A subsequent application for leave to appeal was refused in January 1998 after a full hearing at the Court of Appeal. Yesterday Phillips took his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, claiming the handling of his case had breached his right to 'pre-sumption of innocence', safeguarded by the Human Rights Convention. His lawyer also argued that the confiscation order had violated his right to the 'protection of property', also guaranteed by the Convention. The human rights court heard that the judge in the original trial had used the 1994 Drug Trafficking Act to investigate Phillips's assets. The judge had considered a written statement from a Customs and Excise-appointed drug financial investigation officer, Phillips's own written state-ment in response, and a further state-ment from the investigating officer, as well as courtroom evidence from Phillips and witnesses on his behalf. The assessment was that Phillips had received £91,400 from drug trafficking over the preceding six years. In making this assessment the judge took into account, among other things, the value (£50,000) of a house purchased by the applicant in 1988, a statement, prepared on Phillips behalf by his solicitor, Roger James, said. "Contrary to the applicant's submissions, the judge found that a purported sale of the house was a sham and that it remained the applicant's realisable property within the meaning of the 1994 Act." "He imposed a confiscation order of £91,400. If the applicant failed to pay this amount he was to serve an extra two years imprisonment, consecutive to the nine-year term." Phillips, who had previous convictions, but none in relation to drugs, will learn the outcome of his human rights plea later this year when the Strasbourg judges deliver their verdict.
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