R v Chan CHAO [2008] NSWDC 127

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Chan CHAO [2008] NSWDC 127

HEARING DATE(S): 2 May 2008 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 2 May 2008

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: The offender is sentenced to imprisonment with a non parole period of two years and three months to commence on 3 October 2007 and a head sentence of three years. The non parole period will expire on 2 January 2010 on which day the offender is to be released to parole.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - sentence - supply prohibited drug - ecstasy - significant criminality - on parole at time of offence - no genuine remorse

LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999

PARTIES: The Crown Chan Chao

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2008/11/0142

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Legal Aid Commission

SENTENCE

1 Chan Chao appears for sentence today having pleaded guilty in the Local Court to an offence of supplying a prohibited drug. The prohibited drug was ecstasy, in tablet form, a total of 16.9 grams in sixty-one tablets.

2 The offender was detected when he committed a driving offence. Police stopped the car driven by the offender, and due to the strange behaviour that he displayed and that of his passenger, they decided to search the vehicle. They there discovered a number of important things, in particular the ecstasy tablets, some cash and a number of separate plastic bags. They interviewed the offender and he said that the drugs were all for his own use, a somewhat remarkable proposition given the number of drugs found.

3 Despite his plea of guilty the offender maintained that position when he spoke to an officer from the Probation and Parole Service. He said to her or him that the drugs were for his own use, he was using eight to ten per day. This failure to be frank is a matter which has flowed through the sentencing proceedings even today. The offender was asked by the Crown in cross-examination some questions regarding where he got the money to buy the ecstasy tablets from. The offender said that the money came from him having pawned a gold necklace which his mother had previously given him. The Crown then asked about the money found with the drugs in the car, a sum of about $1,800. And the offender said that that money was not his. He suggested that it was his girlfriend's and had to be used to pay off her credit card. After further questioning in which I asked the offender to explain why it was that he would hold onto money which belonged to his girlfriend the offender eventually admitted that he had been telling lies.