Read the full judgment text of CACC 000498/1994 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 22 February 1995 before Yang CJ, Penlington JA, Liu JA.
Criminal law – trafficking in dangerous drug – heroin – five plastic packets totalling 93.01 grammes of mixture containing 31.74 grammes of salts of esters of morphine – applicant accosted in early hours of morning – varying weights in packets – whether small and varying quantities indicative of self-consumption rather than trafficking – sufficiency of evidence for conviction – sentencing – assistance to police discount – totality principle – concurrent sentences. Whether trial judge erred in convicting applicant of trafficking by failing to give due weight to the small and varying quantities of drugs found in the five packets – held: no, the irregular quantities were not determinative either way and the trial judge's reasoning could not be faulted given the applicant's unimpressive, vague and evasive evidence. Whether the sentence was manifestly excessive – held: no, the computation set out in the trial judge's reasons for sentence was not wrong in principle and the totality was not manifestly excessive. Application for leave to appeal against conviction dismissed; application for leave to appeal against sentence also dismissed. Sentencing math: starting point after discount for assistance to police was 3.5 years, further reduced by 6 months to 3 years to run concurrently with the existing 3.5 year sentence, resulting in overall totality of 6.5 years.
Legal issues: Sufficiency of evidence for trafficking conviction given varying drug quantities · Whether sentence was manifestly excessive
Outcome: Application for leave to appeal against conviction dismissed; application for leave to appeal against sentence dismissed.