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District Court 14 October 2025

R v Sangarathasan

[2025] NSWDC 515

Drugs
CRIME SENTENCE EARLY GUILTY PLEAS PRIOR GOOD CHARACTER OFFENDING OUT OF CHARACTER OFFENDER NOT A USER

Citation: R v Sangarathasan [2025] NSWDC 515
Court: District Court of New South Wales
Date: 14 October 2025
Judge: Neilson DCJ

Background

The offender, a pharmacist, pleaded guilty to two substantive drug supply offences arising from his participation in a dark web drug distribution operation based in Sydney's western suburbs. The operation sold prohibited drugs through an online marketplace called Abacus Market under the vendor name "HQoz," distributing product to buyers via ordinary post using cryptocurrency payments.

The offender was one of three participants. The principal, identified as the founder and controller of the operation, directed the offender and a co-accused to make postal drops of packaged drugs. NSW Police, operating through Strikeforce Cyans, conducted 11 controlled operations between October 2023 and April 2024 using an undercover operative who purchased drugs as a buyer. The offender was involved in ten of those 11 controlled operations.

Police arrested all three participants in a vehicle in Bella Vista on 4 April 2024. Subsequent search warrants at the offender's home revealed 90 grams of methylamphetamine and 6 grams of cocaine. A digital device seized from the vehicle contained an Excel spreadsheet tracking drug supplies since approximately February 2022, indicating total supplies of around 1.9 kilograms of methylamphetamine across the operation, of which the offender was responsible for 426.58 grams.

  • What sentence was appropriate for supply of 9.5 grams of cocaine, an amount nearly twice the indictable quantity but well below the commercial quantity?
  • What sentence was appropriate for commercial quantity supply of 426.58 grams of methylamphetamine, where the standard non-parole period is 10 years?
  • Whether special circumstances existed to justify a non-parole period shorter than the statutory default proportion of the head sentence.
  • How to weigh the offender's prior good character, loss of professional career, personal circumstances, and early guilty plea against the objective seriousness of the offending.

Decision

His Honour found that the offender played a subordinate role within the operation, acting at the direction of the principal rather than as an organiser or financial beneficiary of the business. The offender was not a drug user himself. The court accepted that a range of personal vicissitudes had affected his conduct, including the loss of his career as a pharmacist, and that the offending was out of character.

The court noted the offender's prior good character, his early guilty pleas, and his strong prospects of rehabilitation. His Honour considered that there was little likelihood of reoffending. These factors, taken together, significantly moderated the sentence below what the standard non-parole period for the methylamphetamine offence might otherwise have suggested.

Special circumstances were found in both charges, recognising the offender's need to rebuild his life outside pharmacy, likely through further study and employment in the broader healthcare sector. This justified a departure from the default ratio between the non-parole period and the overall sentence. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently, producing a head sentence of two years and six months with a non-parole period of one year and eight months.

Orders Made

  • Sequence 14 (cocaine supply, 9.5g): Convicted. Sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Non-parole period of 12 months commencing 4 April 2024, expiring 3 April 2025. Balance of sentence of 6 months expiring 3 October 2025. Special circumstances found.
  • Sequence 18 (methylamphetamine supply, 426.58g, commercial quantity): Convicted. Sentenced to 2 years and 6 months imprisonment. Non-parole period of 1 year and 8 months commencing 4 April 2024, expiring 3 December 2025. Balance of sentence of 10 months expiring 3 October 2026. Special circumstances found.
  • Sequence 16 (supply of 90g methylamphetamine, found at home) taken into account on a Form 1 in respect of Sequence 18.
  • Both sentences run concurrently.

Key Takeaways

  • A subordinate role in a dark web drug supply operation, combined with prior good character, early guilty pleas, and low prospects of reoffending, can together support a sentence substantially below the standard non-parole period applicable to commercial quantity methylamphetamine supply under the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985.
  • The District Court distinguished between the principal of the operation and those who acted at his direction when assessing the objective criminality of each participant, treating the offender's lack of organisational control and absence of financial leadership as meaningful mitigating factors.
  • Loss of a professional career as a result of the offending was treated as a relevant personal circumstance, but in this case it also underpinned the finding of special circumstances, as rehabilitation was expected to require further study and retraining in an adjacent field.
  • Where an offender is not a drug user and the evidence supports a conclusion that participation was driven by personal crisis rather than commercial motivation or greed, those factors may weigh in favour of a reduced sentence, particularly where reoffending risk is assessed as low.
  • Concurrent sentences were imposed across the two substantive charges, with the more serious methylamphetamine supply offence (Sequence 18) setting the effective head sentence of 2 years and 6 months, with a non-parole period of 1 year and 8 months.

Legislation and Cases Referenced

Legislation:
- Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 (NSW), s 25(1) and s 25(2)

Cases cited: None cited in the judgment.