COURT: Accused, I have taken into account everything urged on your behalf. You stand convicted on your own pleas of guilty at the Magistrates Court of two charges, one of simple possession of dangerous drugs and one of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
The drugs involved in the 1st charge are 7.82 grammes of a mixture containing 5.10 grammes of heroin hydrochloride, 1.28 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 1.25 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride and two tablets containing 0.02 grammes of midazolam.
The drugs involved under charge 2, which is the trafficking charge are 13.05 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 12.77 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride and 13.86 grammes of a mixture containing 8.84 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
As I have indicated to your counsel, I shall adopt the combined approach in sentencing you in respect of both charges. In respect of the 1st charge, the possession charge, I considered a starting point of 18 months to be appropriate. In respect of the trafficking charge, I consider a starting point of 7½ years to be appropriate.
Having considered everything urged on your behalf, particularly your pleas of guilty and your cooperation with the police, I shall give you the full one-third discount, thereby reducing the sentence to one of 12 months’ imprisonment under charge 1 and 5 years’ imprisonment under charge 2.
These two offences were committed on different occasions and indeed, the 2nd charge was committed while you were on bail for the 1st charge. In all the circumstances and bearing in mind the principle of totality, I consider an overall sentence of 5 years and 3 months to be appropriate.
To achieve that overall sentence, I sentence you to 12 months’ imprisonment under charge 1 and 5 years’ imprisonment under charge 2 and I order that the 3 months of the sentence under charge 1 to run consecutively to the 5 year sentence under charge 2. You will therefore go to prison for a total of 5 years and 3 months.