Regina v Justin Van Turnhout [2007] NSWDC 363

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: Regina v Justin Van Turnhout [2007] NSWDC 363

JUDGMENT DATE: 9 November 2007

JURISDICTION: District Court of New South Wales

JUDGMENT OF: Cogswell SC DCJ at 1

DECISION: Supply prohibited drug on an ongoing basis - 5 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 2 years and 9 months; Unlawfully supply firearms (3 or more times within 12 months) - 4 years and 6 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 1 year and 9 months

CATCHWORDS: Criminal law - Sentence - Supply prohibited drug ongoing basis - Unlawfully supply firearms (3 or more times within 12 months) - Objective seriousness - Undercover police operation - Offender addicted to methamphetamine - Sincere remorse - Early guilty plea - High prospects of rehabilitation - Special circumstances

25A Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 s25 Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 LEGISLATION CITED: s39P Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 s51B Firearms Act 1996 s65 Friearms Act 1996

CASES CITED: Regina v Galway NSWCCA, unreported, 19 August 1998 Regina v Henry (1999) 46 NSWLR 346

PARTIES: Regina Justin Van Turnhout

FILE NUMBER(S): 07/21/3232

COUNSEL: Mr Hood for the offender

SOLICITORS: Ms Hocking for the NSW DPP

SENTENCE 1. I am sentencing a young man from a good family, with a good education and with a good job. In his mid twenties, without any previous exposure, he tried a drug. That drug was methylamphetamine. He became immediately addicted. So addicted did he become that the drug took over his life. He started selling assets, which he owned, in order to keep up his habit of taking this particular drug. The habit cost him some thousands of dollars per day. So overwhelmed was he by his need to feed his addiction, that his judgment was completely lost. Hence, when undercover police suspected him and an associate of supplying drugs, he readily provided them, not only with methylamphetamine, but with firearms as well.