The police found drugs and smoking paraphernalia at the defendant’s premises when they were called there to deal with a breathless baby case. At first he denied knowledge, and under caution he later said that all those belonged to him and he was still under grief of the death of his baby and so denied having anything to do with the drugs.
Those drugs are the subject matter of the first charge, and upon analysis were found to consist of 0.62 grammes of a crystalline solid, and 0.76 grammes of a solid, and 0.76 grammes of a solid containing 1.32 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride with a street value of $1,013.
Whilst on bail after that arrest he was stopped with a female on the street some six months later. Upon entry to a unit where the female claimed to have left her identity card, drugs i.e, cocaine and “Ice” were found and the defendant admitted that he was paid $500 by someone to deliver the cocaine there whilst the “Ice” belonged to him for his own consumption.
Upon analysis it was found that there was 34.52 grammes of a solid containing 20.71 grammes of cocaine, and 8.69 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 8.33 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
There were also two bottles containing 35 millilitres of liquid containing traces of “Ice”. The street value of the cocaine and “Ice” were $37,592 and $5,492 respectively.
The defendant is now aged 37, divorced. He has eight items of previous record, about six related to drugs of which two related to trafficking. The last conviction was back in 2009 and he was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment, his last discharge from prison is back in January 2010.
By way of mitigation I am told that the defendant has been a long-term drug abuser - originally he took heroin but later resort to “Ice” from 2006 onwards. It is urged on his behalf that after the passing away of his baby boy on the day of the first offence, he was not quite his usual self and needed to consume further drugs for his own consolation, and Charge 2 was quite an out of character offence.
In sentencing the defendant, I have taken into account the facts of the present case, the drugs involved and the sentencing tariff. No doubt, the greatest mitigating factor is his guilty plea, and I have also taken into account that he managed to keep himself out of trouble since 2009.
I shall first deal with the trafficking charge, that is Charge 2, which involves 20.71 grammes of cocaine. That falls within a 10 to 50 grammes bracket - five to eight years sentencing tariff.
I adopt a starting point of six years’ imprisonment. In relation to Charges 1 and 3 which involves possession of 1.32 grammes and 8.33 grammes of “Ice”, I adopt a starting point of six months and nine months respectively, and I am not enhancing such on the basis of latent risk.
The defendant is entitled to a one-third discount for his guilty plea. Sentence as follows: Charge 1, four months; Charge 2, four years; and Charge 3, six months.
I take into consideration that Charges 2 and 3 are committed whilst on bail of Charge 1. I order the sentence of Charge 1 to run consecutively whilst sentences in respect of Charge 2 and 3 to run concurrently, total 4 years and 4 months.