Citation: R v Darren Andrew Cole [2008] NSWDC 126
Court: District Court of New South Wales
Date: 1 May 2008
Judge(s): Berman SC DCJ
Background
The offender, a former navy medic, was apprehended after a police pursuit ended when his vehicle collided with another car. A search of the vehicle uncovered two quantities of Ice (methamphetamine totalling approximately 5.3 grams), 33 unused resealable bags, palm scales, and $4,290 in cash. Police also found photographs on a digital camera showing the offender with large sums of money.
During a police interview, the offender made full admissions. He disclosed that he had sold Ice on five separate occasions that evening across the Five Dock, Leichhardt and Surrey Hills areas, and that he had been dealing for roughly eight weeks with more than ten but fewer than thirty supply transactions in total. He acknowledged that profit was a significant motivation.
The offender pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to one count of supplying a prohibited drug and asked the court to take into account a related goods in custody charge concerning the seized cash. Sentencing proceeded on the basis that his activities on the day of arrest were not isolated.
Legal Issues
- Whether the offending constituted trafficking to a substantial degree, thereby engaging the presumption in favour of full-time custody
- Whether the offender's personal circumstances, including post-traumatic stress disorder arising from his service after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, constituted exceptional circumstances justifying a non-custodial sentence
- The appropriate quantum of the sentence, including the discount for an early guilty plea and whether special circumstances existed to vary the standard ratio of non-parole to head sentence
Decision
The court found that the offender was trafficking to a substantial degree. That finding engaged the established principle that full-time custody must follow unless the case is truly exceptional. The defence submitted that the offender's significant psychiatric history amounted to exceptional circumstances, but the court rejected that submission.
The court accepted that the offender's exposure to the 2004 tsunami relief effort, and in particular the helicopter crash aboard HMAS Kanimbla that killed nine of his shipmates, had caused genuine and ongoing psychological harm. A psychiatric report from Dr Allnutt confirmed the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. The court acknowledged the offender's military service with respect.
However, the court noted that many people who suffer emotional trauma subsequently begin using and then dealing drugs. What set this offender apart was that his motivation went beyond funding a personal habit: he was, at least partly, driven by the financial returns available from drug dealing, as he had told police directly. Emotional trauma and financial stress provided no justification for a serious and dangerous offence. The court was satisfied this was not an exceptional case.
The court applied a 25 per cent discount to reflect the early guilty plea and found special circumstances warranting a longer-than-standard parole period, on the basis that it was the offender's first period of custody and that ongoing supervision would benefit both him and the community given his continuing PTSD.
Orders Made
- Imprisonment with a non-parole period of 12 months commencing 1 May 2008, and a head sentence of 2 years and 3 months
- Release to parole on 30 April 2009
- Forfeiture of $4,290 in cash
- Destruction of the seized drugs
Key Takeaways
- The District Court confirmed that trafficking to a substantial degree carries a strong presumption of full-time custody, and that a genuine psychiatric history arising from traumatic circumstances does not automatically constitute an exceptional case sufficient to displace that presumption.
- Where an offender's motivation for drug supply includes financial gain rather than solely funding personal drug use, that factor weighs against leniency and reinforces the seriousness of the offending.
- A 25 per cent sentence discount was applied for an early guilty plea, consistent with the offender's cooperative conduct, including full admissions to police.
- Special circumstances were found where an offender serving a first custodial term has ongoing mental health needs, supporting a longer parole period to allow extended supervision in the community.
- The court treated the offender's broader history of supply, disclosed voluntarily to police, as relevant context, even though the sentence was imposed only for the specific acts on the day of arrest, ensuring the offending was not characterised as isolated.
Legislation and Cases Referenced
No specific legislation or cases were cited by name in the judgment text or metadata. The court referred to unspecified "authorities" establishing the full-time custody principle for trafficking to a substantial degree.