Jade Victoria Bromley Bennett (27) used the message-sharing app Snapchat to sell ecstasy, the court heard, and had started selling drugs when she was 21.
She was described as a ‘prolific street dealer’ in a police report read in court, but a probation report also identified her as someone with a ‘strong work ethic’ who held down jobs for extensive periods of time.
Crown Advocate Chris Baglin, prosecuting, said Bennett sold MDMA – commonly known as ecstasy – in powder and tablet form on a weekly basis and had started directing customers to Snapchat, which automatically deletes content after 24 hours, in the past year.
Almost £21,000 of unexplained income was found in one of Bennett’s bank accounts, he said, which, along with texts on her phone relating to supplying drugs, suggested she was a ‘prolific street dealer’.
The sum would have been equivalent to around 100 grams of powdered MDMA and more than 400 tablets, the court heard.
Bennett was caught after a man told the States police she had sold him a gram of powdered MDMA last February for £70, warning him: ‘Be careful, it is strong stuff.’
CCTV footage from a St Helier car park showed the deal taking place. The police found two sets of scales and traces of MDMA and cannabis at her flat, and drugs-related messages on her phone, Advocate Baglin said.
Advocate James Bell, defending, said Bennett had no previous convictions and that his client had shown a ‘level of co-operation’ with the authorities, as she had provided the password to her phone and disclosed her bank details. Advocate Bell told the court that his client ‘acknowledges that she has done wrong and
that she wants to make things right’.
He said: ‘Ms Bennett fully accepts it is illegal and potentially dangerous to provide these substances to anyone.’
Advocate Bell also highlighted her early guilty pleas.
Bennett admitted two counts of supplying a controlled drug at a hearing in November, as well as one count of offering to supply a controlled drug to an individual.
The Deputy Bailiff, Robert MacRae, said the true level of Bennett’s dealing ‘could not be established’, due to her switch to using Snapchat.
However, he added that a probation report identified her as a ‘hardworking young woman’. He said the court had taken into account her letter of remorse, letters of support from family and friends – who were sitting in court for yesterday’s hearing – and acknowledged her previous good character.
Bennett’s phone and the unexplained income were also confiscated.
Jurats Collette Crill, Anthony Olsen and David Hughes were sitting.
