A HEROIN addict sold drugs to pay for treats for her four children. The Royal Court yesterday sentenced Dominique Poullard, 33, to five years and eight months in prison after she admitted charges of possession with intent to supply, and supplying heroin.

Advocate Sara Mallett said that Poullard’s motivation to sell the drugs was to provide for her children, as she did not have money for treats.

‘Miss Poullard is not a big fish in the drug world,’ she said.

‘She was naive and vulnerable. She was the one taking all the risks with very little to gain.’

She added that her client now realised it was not money that made a good parent, but time, something her children would now lose out on. Two of the children are now living with Poullard’s mother and two with her partner in her home.

Appearing alongside Poullard, Michelle Beck, 39, admitted possession of heroin with intent to supply, and cannabis possession. She was sentenced to five years and two months in prison.

Lt-Bailiff Russell Finch said hard drugs had played a part in both of the women’s lives. Their families, particularly Poullard’s children, would suffer as a result.

‘This is hard drugs dealing for gain and we must punish you,’ he said, ‘but we hope you will continue to maintain your personal progress in prison and remain drug-free.’

Police and Customs officers searched Poullard’s St Peter Port home on 6 March.

As they approached, they saw Beck attempt to leave the house.

Poullard was in the living room – her children were asleep upstairs – and immediately pointed out to the officers a small plastic bag and foil wraps on the fireplace.

In all they recovered 13 foil wraps containing heroin, a set of scales, a plastic bag containing brown powder, six foil wraps, a roll of foil, three syringes and a silver spoon. There was £310 cash in a mug in a kitchen cupboard.

A packet of 10 Royals cigarettes, which had three wraps secreted into the outer wrapping, were found down the side of the sofa.

In total officers found 9.341g of heroin, worth between £2,800 and £5,600.

Poullard, an addict who had taken drugs earlier in the day of her arrest, had intended to divide the heroin, which she had obtained locally the day before, into 0.2g silver foils to sell for £60 each.

She expected to make between £500 and £1,000. She admitted selling a gram to Beck for £250.

At Beck’s home, police found 0.197g of heroin, worth about £100, and 1.29g of cannabis resin, with a value of little more than £10, in a tin with £548 cash.

She said that she had gone to Poullard’s house to help her inject and had cut foil to prepare wraps while she was there.

Advocate David Domaille urged the court to consider that Beck had not organised for the drugs to come into Guernsey, was not a major factor in the operation and had not played a part in the distribution of the drugs.