A former soldier who saw active service in Iraq and Afghanistan turned to dealing cocaine after being introduced to the drug while working as a bouncer at Swansea pubs and bars, a court has heard.
Kyle Davies left the Army suffering with post traumatic stress disorder and worked for a time in close protection security roles before returning to live in south Wales and finding work on the doors of licenced premises. But once back on civvy street he began mixing with people who used coke recreationally which led to him to using the drug and later supplying it.
Swansea Crown Court heard it has taken three years for the case to get to court to be sentenced, and a judge said that for some 18 months of that time it appeared "nobody could be bothered to do anything with it."
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Freddie Lewendon, prosecuting, said Davies came to the attention of police in March 2020 after members of the public reported suspicious activity outside the closed Y Boblen pub in Cwmllynfell involving men loading boxes into the backs of two parked cars. A search of the pub later found a more than 200 cannabis plants inside, and police subsequently traced one of the cars seen outside the premises - a BMW - to Davies.
The court heard the defendant was initially arrested on suspicion of producing cannabis but while he accepted meeting two Albanian men at the public house he said the cannabis was for his own use, and the prosecutor said there was no evidence the defendant had involved in the growing operation. However, when officers searched Davies' house they found a "significant amount" of cocaine and £610 in cash along with a large number of empty zip-lock plastic bags and weighing scales covered in a white residue. The prosecutor said when Davies was asked for his phone he became "aggressive" and officers had to draw a Taser and shine the red light of stun gun's laser sight on him - a technique known as "red dotting". A subsequent search of the defendant's car uncovered another £200 in cash and a diary containing numbers and dates.
Davies was taken to Swansea Central police station where he was found to be in possession of two zip-lock bags of cocaine. The defendant gave a prepared statement in regard to the cannabis matters but then answered "no comment" to all questions asked save to confirm the substance found by officers was cocaine. After being questioned he was released under investigation while the contents of his phone was downloaded.
The prosecutor said a schedule of messages from the phone was provided to police in February 2021 and the Crown Prosecution Service was asked for a charging decision in July 2022 - charges were authorised the following month, and then Davies was charged via postal requisition in October. He said the officer in the case had twice been asked to write a letter to the court explaining the delay but no response had been received and there was "no obvious reason for the delay".
Kyle Bevan, aged 35, of Bryn y Clochydd, Townhill, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty being concerned in the supply of cocaine and to possession of cocaine with intent to supply when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. The court heard he has no previous convictions in the criminal courts but does have a conviction for being absent without leave from a court martial.
Dan Griffiths, for Davies, told the court his client had served eight years with 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh completing several tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan in areas which a report had described as "ferociously dangerous and hostile to all coalition forces". He said Davies had been "exposed to the real horrors of war which had left an indelible mark on him" and after developing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had taken the decision to leave the military. The advocate said his client tried a variety of jobs after leaving the Army but "finding neither meaning nor purpose" in them had returned to the Middle East working for a private security firm - however when the lucrative work he had been promised did not materialise, he had returned in south Wales in 2019 "thoroughly dejected and in debt" and took work on the doors of licence premises around the Swansea area. Mr Griffiths said it was in the course of this employment that Davies was exposed to people who used cocaine recreationally, and he himself then started using the drug to help him to stay awake during nightshifts on the doors - this lead to dealing quantities of coke, initially to fund his own use.
The advocate said Davies had kept his dealing secret from his partner, and he realises he is fortunate to retain her support. He said it was evident from his conversations with the defendant that he was ashamed of what he had done, and he said while in the past Davies had turned to cannabis and alcohol as ways of coping with his mental health issues he was now working as personal trainer as a form of therapy, and had demonstrated "a real desire to change".
The advocate added that there seemed to be "no justification" for almost three-year delay in the case being sentenced, and that in his submission that delay was significant mitigation.
Judge Christopher Vosper KC said Davies had joined the British Army as a teenager and served eight years during which time he had served on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan, and according to reports he had read had seen colleagues being killed or injured. He said after leaving the Army Davies had then returned to the Middle East as a close protection security officer but when he wasn't paid by the private company he had gone to work for he had returned to south Wales "in debt and out of work".
The judge said the starting point for sentencing on the guidelines was one of a four-a-and-half year prison sentence, and given the defendant's lack of previous convictions, his remorse, his service in the Army, and his mental health issues and the steps he had taken to tackle those issues, that sentence could be reduced to one of after trial of three-and-a-half years - with a full one-third discount for his guilty plea that was further reduced to two years and four months. The judge said a sentence of imprisonment of more than two years was not one which could be suspended, and he had to consider whether he could take the sentence below two years and four months. He said given the delay in the case - which appeared to include a period of some 18 months when it seemed "nobody could be bothered to do anything with it", recent Court of Appeal guidance about prison overcrowding and imposing custodial sentencing on defendants on the "cusp" of custody, the recommendation in the pre-sentence report that Davies would benefit from working with a psychologist on his PTSD, and the realistic prospect of rehabilitation in the case - he felt justified in reducing the sentence further to one of two years, a sentence which could and should be suspended. Davies was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and a mental health treatment requirement.
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