R v Tuameh, Salim [2007] NSWDC 348

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Tuameh, Salim [2007] NSWDC 348

JUDGMENT DATE: 12 December 2007

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Nicholson SC DCJ

DECISION: Convicted.; Non parole period of 17 months to commence on 4 December 2007 and to expire on 3 May 2009. Balance of term of 17 months to expire on 3 October 2010

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Sentence - Knowingly take part in supply of prohibited drug - cocaine - involvement in several transactions - 2 deliveries - total 217 grams - 29 year old - Lebonese heritage - medical issues - unreliable historian - early guilty plea

R v Cuthbert [1967] 2 NSWR 329 CASES CITED: R v Rushby [1977] NSWLR 597 R v Hayes [1984] 1 NSWLR 740

PARTIES: Regina Salim Tuameh

FILE NUMBER(S): 06/21/0345

JUDGMENT 1. Police were investigating the supply of cocaine focusing in particular on Granville and Merrylands. In the course of that work they uncovered a cell of four persons including Salim Tuameh knowingly involved in supplying cocaine. 2. With the use of phone taps, undercover police operatives, surveillance, marked money and other means police were able to obtain evidence against these four. Three of these offenders have already been sentenced by Judges of this Court. Today Salim Tuameh is to be held accountable for his criminal conduct between 8 March 2006 and 31 March 2006 when he knowingly took part in the supply of cocaine, a prohibited drug in New South Wales. 3. As sentencing judge it falls to me to resolve a number of competing tensions as I strive to determine the appropriate sentence for this offence before this Court committed by this offender harming this community. 4. My initial task requires an assessment of the objective criminality of the offences before the Court. I will also need to have regard to matters personal to the offender, that is, his subjective matters. The starting point for such assessments requires a sentencing judge to make findings of fact from the evidence before the Court relating to the offence and to the offender. 5. My fact-finding task has been circumscribed in that the parties have tendered an agreed set of facts to which I shall shortly return. It is sufficient at this point that I remind the Court a judge is not party to the agreed set of facts. The tender of agreed facts does not relieve him or her from the fact-finding responsibility. It simply limits the material from which facts may be found. To the extent, if it be the case, that the facts as agreed do not reflect the actual events that occurred, it must be remembered the Court can only find facts from the evidence placed before it. 6. The offender's rehabilitation prospects will need to be assessed even if looking through a glass darkly. Before any sentence can be made there are likely to be technical questions relating to deterrence, discounts, whether special circumstances are to be found, parity, the length of the parole period and of course the ultimate length of term of imprisonment or other penalty to be imposed. 7. None of these can be commenced until the primary facts are determined. What weight needs to be given to all of these matters against the imperative that all sentencing should have as its primary focus the protection of the community will also need to be determined, see R v Cuthbert [1967] 2 NSWR 329, R v Rushby [1977] NSWLR 597, R v Hayes [1984] 1 NSWLR 740. Facts 8. One Aboud Yasin had made arrangements to supply 4 ounces or 112 grams of cocaine to an undercover operative involved in a controlled operation seeking to be supplied with drugs. Yasin of course was unaware he was dealing with a police operative. In the course of fulfilling that order Yasin received a portion of this cocaine, namely 22 grams, from Tuameh. 9. Lawfully intercepted telephone calls captured the negotiations, which led to that supply of 22 grams of cocaine for later use as evidence. Tuameh directed Yasin to "Fishing R Us", a business run by his family located on Parramatta Road at Auburn, to collect the 22 grams of cocaine. Yasin was observed attending the shop, leaving shortly afterwards, placing an object in his pocket. As Yasin drove from the shop, telephone intercepts recorded further conversations with this offender where he discussed prices and the need to cut the cocaine with other agents in order to make a total volume of one ounce or 28 grams.