Select a region
A man who was trafficked into Jersey as a small child and has previously been held up as an example of the failures of the island's care system has been jailed for six-and-a-half years after being caught with drugs worth tens of thousands of pounds.
Elias Campbell Benyoucef (28) also assaulted two men at a pub, drove a moped without a licence, and ran away from police officers who were trying to arrest him.
Benyoucef was born in Morocco but was sent to live in the UK as a young child, and then went to live with his aunt and uncle in Jersey when he was around eight years old, the Royal Court heard.
The couple were planning to adopt Benyoucef, but these plans fell through when his uncle was convicted of sex offences.
Benyoucef was, from then on, in the care system – and was homeless by the time he was 17.
The 28-year-old appeared in the Royal Court yesterday to be sentenced for four counts of possession with intent to supply, four counts of possession of drugs, two counts of assault, one count of breach of the peace, one of failing to provide a specimen, one of driving without a licence, one of driving without insurance, one of resisting arrest, one of neglecting traffic directions, and one of escaping from lawful custody.
The court heard that Benyoucef was caught in July 2022 with the drugs when a property owner in St Helier saw "a suspicious Co-op carrier bag" in his driveway and called the police.
The bag contained 24.04 grams of cocaine, 47 MDMA tablets, 23 one-millilitre syringes of THC, and 680.19 grams of cannabis resin.
The total street value of the drugs was between £18,780 and £28,670, Crown Advocate Luke Sette, prosecuting, said.
Police then installed a hidden camera and saw Benyoucef – and found his fingerprints on the bag as well as on the ziploc bags containing the drugs.
When he was arrested at his home, police found a further 53.25 grams of herbal cannabis.
When they searched Benyoucef's phone, officers found that he had sent messages referring to a "stash" and kept a "deals list" on his notes app – complete with the money he was owed, totalling £33,005.
A video on his phone showed Benyoucef holding "three large bag of pills and THC syringes" identical to the ones found in the stash bag.
Two more videos showed him with large amounts of money, and a fourth video showed someone handling a bar of cannabis resin.
At his home, police officers found a Gucci watch, a red tin that was featured in one of the videos, and receipts showing he spent £3,011.98 between April and August 2022.
In April 2023, Benyoucef was involved in a fight outside St James Wine Bar.
CCTV showed how at first, he had tried to pull others away from a fight – but how he eventually got involved, kicking one man to the stomach, and slapping another in the face.
In May 2023, Benyoucef wasn't allowed into the Watersplash because he was intoxicated.
When honorary police officers arrived, he threw a small clear bag to the ground, which contained 721 mg of ketamine.
A green pill in his pocket was found to be 385 mg of MDMA.
Benyoucef was caught again carrying drugs on 2 July 2023, when he had 711 mg of cocaine on him – but claimed in interview that someone else had put it in his clothes.
In August that year, Benyoucef was driving a moped in the wrong direction down a one-way street. He was stopped by police officers and failed a breathalyser test.
Crown Advocate Sette described how he ran away and shouted: "I am not being arrested".
The Crown Advocate asked for Benyoucef to be jailed for a total of eight years and nine months.
Advocate Mike Preston, defending, said that Benyoucef was "very sorry for having committed all of these offences".
"He is not some sort of drugs kingpin operating in Jersey, he is, from my understanding, something of a street dealer," he explained.
The first offences took place more than two years ago, which Crown Advocate Sette said was because of two large investigations that meant that police officers had to be deployed in other areas.
Delivering the sentence, the Bailiff, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, said the court took Beyoucef's remorse as "genuine".
He said: "You wish to change your life and improve your future and not to live the same life that you have lived up to now. We accept that."
He sentenced Benyoucef to a total of six years and six months in prison.
The Bailiff was presiding alongside Jurats Christensen, Dulake, Le Heuzé, Opfermann and Entwistle.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.