A festival drug op nan who was caught with £2,500 worth of illegal substances at the entrance of a major UK festival has had her sentence slashed
A nan was busted with thousands of pounds worth of drugs inside her vagina as she attempted to smuggle drugs into a popular UK music festival.
Nicole France, 53, tried to smuggle ketamine and ecstasy into Creamfields festival, but she was caught out by a police sniffer dog. The grandma was stopped at the entrance of the popular dance music festival in Daresbury, Cheshire, and she admitted the crime.
France was found with almost £2,500 worth of drugs hidden in her private area. She told cops that she had gone to the festival with a free ticket and planned to sneak illegal drugs in on the “instruction” of her dealer.
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The nan, who travelled more than 220 miles away from her home in Surrey, claimed to police that the dealer told her: “You will do this for me”. France, who previously studied at the London School of Science and Technology. appeared at Chester Crown Court in December and admitted possession of Class A and Class B drugs with intent to supply, according to Manchester Evening News.
She has now however had her initial jail term slashed. The woman, last year, also pleaded not to be sent to jail saying she had a 12-year-old son living at home. Matthew Buckland, defending, told the court the gran, a past crack cocaine user who has 17 convictions for 35 offences dating back to 2000, had had a “difficult past”.
He added that she was “traumatised” by a violent relationship. Buckland said: “Her young son is properly categorized as a vulnerable young man. There is in her case a unique set of circumstances in which I hope that the court can pull back from an immediate custodial sentence and give her the opportunity to put this behind her.”
Despite this, France, formerly of Sutton, Surrey, was jailed for 30 months. Judge Mr Recorder Ciaran Rankin speaking to the grandma said: ”You say you have a young son who desperately requires help and assistance but you were not thinking of him when you did what you did.
“You were not thinking of him when you undertook criminal activity. You will know that drugs of any description particularly class A drugs, destroy the lives of individuals and families.
“They have a significant adverse effect on the community. In my view it is only in extreme circumstances that those involved in these cases of offending do not go to prison immediately.”
Now, however, judges at London’s Appeal Court have cut France’s sentence by more than a quarter after Mr Buckland argued the original sentence failed to give “adequate weight” to her “substantial personal mitigation”. He told the court the prison term “posed disproportionate hardship” and risked “significant harm” to her son. Buckland added that the term could also make France’s “physical and mental conditions” worse.
The three appeal court judges Lord Justice Fraser, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Judge Leonard, their written ruling, said that while the sentencing judge was right to jail France, he had “failed to consider” both the welfare of her son and her physical and mental health issues. Her 30 month sentence was replaced with a 22 month jail term.
