R v Samantha Jane LENDILL [2008] NSWDC 394

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Samantha Jane LENDILL [2008] NSWDC 394

JUDGMENT DATE: 5 September 2008

JURISDICTION: District Court of New South Wales

JUDGMENT OF: Cogswell SC DCJ

DECISION: For the offence of supplying methylamphetamine I sentence you to 2 years imprisonment. For the offence of supplying cocaine I sentence you to 1 year imprisonment. Both sentences are suspended under s 12 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999.

CATCHWORDS: CRIME - sentence - conviction at trial - supply .36 gram cocaine - supply 3.99grams methylamphetamine - form of custodial sentence - involved in car accident and broke back and neck - drug user prior to being taken into custody - participated in course on domestic violence - joined Narcotics Anonymous - pre sentence report - psychological report - short criminal record - no evidence of planning or organisation - drug user who sold drugs to support her own habit - no alternative to sentence of imprisonment - reasonably good prospects of rehabilitation - reasons why suspend sentence

LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 s 12 Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 s 25

PARTIES: Regina Samantha Jane Lendill

FILE NUMBER(S): 2007/15031

COUNSEL: Mr L Fernandez for Ms Lendill

SOLICITORS: Ms CL Summerfield for the Director of Public Prosecutions

JUDGMENT

1. I am sentencing a woman who was living a relatively normal, well adjusted and successful life until two matters intervened. One was a serious car accident in 1998, in which she broke her neck and back. The other was not so much an event but a relationship; she started cohabiting with a man who introduced her to serious drug taking. As a result of these two intervening factors, her life went seriously awry. It went so far off track that she is before me now to be sentenced for two offences of supplying drugs.