R v Michael John HARDES [2005] NSWDC 4

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Michael John HARDES [2005] NSWDC 4

HEARING DATE(S): 22/08/2005-30/08/2005 Trial 21/10/2005 Sentence

JUDGMENT DATE: 21 October 2005

EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 21 October 2005

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: See Paragraphs [22] & [23]

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Sentence - Supply commercial quantity of methylamphetamine

PARTIES: Crown Michael John Hardes

FILE NUMBER(S): 03/11/0537

COUNSEL: M. Ainsworth (Hardes)

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Michael Croke & Co

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Michael John Hardes was convicted by a jury on one count of supplying a commercial quantity of methyl amphetamine. He had been indicted on a charge of supplying a large commercial quantity of methyl amphetamine but the jury acquitted him of that offence, convicting him of the alternative.

2 The Crown called evidence of a number of specific acts of supply but in light of the way the Crown case was run the verdict returned by the jury necessarily means that they were not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of most of that evidence.

3 The Crown case so far as the alternative was concerned was based on this evidence. Mr Brett Taylor was a dealer in methyl amphetamine. Shortly before he was to go overseas he gave the accused two half pound packages of that drug. One was to be distributed by the accused to Mr Taylor's customers and the other was to be given to drug dealers by the name of Walsh and Love in the event that they ran out of methyl amphetamine while Mr Taylor was overseas.

4 On 1 July 1999 the police searched the offender's premises and they found two plastic bags of methyl amphetamine in the accused's shed. I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that those two bags found by the police were the two bags given to the offender by Mr Taylor. Together they weighed approximately 440 grams. They were reasonably pure as well. They would have had to have been cut significantly before they were at street level purity.