Richard Tutt represented Darren Lane, a heavily convicted serving prisoner from Bournemouth with 49 convictions for 161 offences on his record.  Mr Lane was charged with conveying a List A article, 13.8g MDMA, into prison with an estimated value of  £2,010. It was concealed in a hi-fi system when Mr Lane handed himself into a police station, knowing that he would be remanded.  He had been persuaded to do this at a time when he was street homeless and using heroin and crack cocaine. This offence was committed in August 2019 but not charged until August 2020. In the meantime Mr Lane has been serving a 40-month sentence at HMP Dartmoor.  He is due to be released in December 2020 on Home Detention Curfew.  He has completed a methadone detox and is clean and has made arrangements, off his own bat, to be released to a rehabilitation unit. HHJ Miller QC took the opportunity to recognise the 43 year old Defendant’s efforts and passed a suspended sentence of imprisonment so as not to impede the path he has set out upon, but to provide a serious sanction should he step off it.

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