Man Charged with Drug Supply Escapes Prison

Lawyer-in-charge: Lara Menon.

Our client was an 18-year-old man who was caught by Police with significant quantities of drugs in his car. Our client was in the car with an associate in Harrington Park when Police arrived to undertake a routine crime prevention surveillance of the area. Following a search of the car, Police found significant quantities of drugs. Our client was charged with four offences, namely “knowingly take part in supply of prohibited drug, more than indictable quantity but less than commercial”, punishable by a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and/or fine of $220,000; “supply prohibited drug, more than small quantity but less than indictable”, punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and/or fine of $220,000; “supply prohibited drug, more than indictable quantity but less than commercial”, punishable by a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and/or fine of $220,000; and “possess prohibited drug”, punishable by a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment and/or fine of $2,200. Our client was therefore facing significant penalties, including a lengthy term of imprisonment.

Our client was issued a Court Attendance Notice to attend the Local Court of NSW on the first instance. Due to the seriousness of the charges, there was a risk that the matter would be moved to the District Court as the Local Court has a jurisdictional limit of imposing a sentence of imprisonment of only 2 years per offence, with a total maximum term of 5 years. If this were to happen, our client would be facing significantly higher maximum penalties. In order to avoid this from happening, Lara entered a plea of guilty on the first occasion and requested that the Court Order a Sentencing Assessment Report. This was agreed by the Court, meaning that the matter would remain in the Local Court for sentence.

Our client had no previous criminal history, lived at home with his parents, and was undertaking an Apprenticeship. He had also been diagnosed with multiple disorders such as Attentive Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. Once our client turned 18, he was no longer under the care of a Pediatrician for these conditions and they went unmanaged, which led to the circumstances of committing this offence. Lara made submissions to the Court in this regard, and also made submissions that our client had excellent prospects of rehabilitation and had voluntarily undertaken many steps to address his drug use and offending behaviour. Lara tendered a significant bundle of subjective material in support of her submissions, and our client’s subjective circumstances.

The Court ultimately agreed with Lara’s submission that our client had excellent prospects of rehabilitation and noted that a period of supervision would be sufficient to ensure the protection of the community. Our client avoided a full-time custodial sentence, placed on a Community Corrections Order to be supervised by Community Corrections, abstain from drug use and is subject to a curfew for the first 9 months of the Order.