R v Hay; R v Cross [2023] NSWDC 234

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Hay; R v Cross [2023] NSWDC 234 Hearing dates: 15 June 2023 Date of orders: 29 June 2023 Decision date: 29 June 2023 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Priestley SC DCJ Decision: See [50 & 83] Catchwords: CRIME — Drug offences — Commonwealth offences — Attempted import marketable quantity of border-controlled drug Legislation Cited: Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) Cases Cited: Nasrallah v R [2021] NSWCCA 207 Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37 Huynh v The Queen [2022] VSCA 49 Siddiqi v The Queen [2015] NSWCCA 169 Robson Bolan [2022] NSWCCA 1 Totaan v R [2022] NSWCCA 7 Dunning v Tasmania [2018] TASCCA 21 Category: Sentence Parties: Rex (Crown) Tristina Hay (Offender) Samuel David Cross (Offender) Representation: Hirst for the Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Sayad for Cross Sahinovic for Hay File Number(s): 2021/00356519, 2021/00356522 Publication restriction: NA

JUDGMENT 1. Samuel David Cross and Tristina Hay each appear for sentence on one charge pursuant to sections 11.1(1) 307.2(1) and s11.2A of the Criminal Code (Cth) ("CCC") of attempting to import border-controlled drugs, namely cocaine in an amount of a marketable quantity. The offenders will be referred to collectively as the offenders and where necessary to identify them individually by their surname or as the offender. 2. The offence has a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment. The maximum sentence serves as a legislative guidepost indicating the view of the legislature as to the seriousness of the offence to assist in arriving at the appropriate sentence. 3. The offence is made up by two occasions of attempting to import cocaine. On the first occasion the quantity involved was pure cocaine of 327.14 g and on the second the quantity involved was 370.239 g of pure cocaine, giving a total of approximately 697 g. The date range in which this conduct occurred was between 2 August 2021 and 19 October 2021. Both offenders were arrested on 21 December 2021. Hay was held in custody until 25 July 2022, so a period of 7 months and 5 days. Cross has been held in custody since his arrest so a period as at the date of these reasons of 18 months and 9 days. 4. There are no matters to be dealt with by way of a section 16AB schedule. Neither offender was on conditional liberty at the time of the offending.