8-year sentence for trafficking wholesale quantities of drugs

Alan Phillips briefed Angus Edwards KC of counsel for his client in the Supreme Court for sentencing. Our client pleaded guilty to trafficking in dangerous drugs at a wholesale level for commercial profit.

Our client was initially alleged to have multiple employees in his business and had access to kilograms of drugs via the syndicate. He complained in one message obtained by police of the headache involved in counting $500,000 to $1 million in cash.

He had access to firearms and sold an assault rifle. He was alleged to have sold in half a kilogram of methamphetamine in a single transaction. Following a thorough review of the brief and multiple submissions made by Alan Phillips to the Crown, the facts were reduced significantly.

He was sentenced on the basis that he trafficked multiple drugs for a three-week period, and that he only had one employee in his drug business. The Crown sought a sentence of 9-11 years imprisonment. If he had received 10 years imprisonment or more, he would have been required to serve 80% of that term, being at least 8 years imprisonment in actual custody.

Following submissions by Angus Edwards KC, the presiding Justice sentenced him to a head sentence of 8 years imprisonment, with a parole eligibility after 2 years and 4 months, being less than the usual third in actual custody.