STATE OF TASMANIA v KURT ROBERT DEZOETE 5 AUGUST 2022
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE JAGO J
Mr Dezoete, you have pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in methylamphetamine. On Tuesday, 29 October 2019 the motor vehicle you were driving was intercepted by police. Pursuant to a search warrant, police searched the vehicle and found in the centre console, two snap-lock bags of methylamphetamine: one bag contained 27.7 grams and the second bag contained 111.00 grams. The concentration of each bag was 13% and 13.4% respectively. In total, you were in possession of 138.7 grams of methyl amphetamine in the form commonly known as “speed”. You have pleaded guilty on the basis that you transported the substance in the belief that another person intended to sell it. The State accepts this as the basis upon which you are to be sentenced. Depending on the quantities in which the drug was sold, the potential street value of the methyl amphetamine was between $25,000.00 if sold in ounce form, and up to in excess of $100,000.00 if sold in point form. You, of course, had no way of knowing in what quantity the drugs might be on-sold. You have no relevant prior convictions. You have some matters under the Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Act and what might be described as offences against good order, by way of prior recorded history, but nothing which, in my view, impacts in any substantial way upon the sentencing exercise. You are now 33 years of age. You have been married for the past ten years and enjoy a supportive and loving relationship. You have two children to your marriage and a third child to a previous relationship. I am told you come from a close knit family. I accept you have led an industrious life. You are a qualified butcher. Save for two short periods of time where you undertook child care duties for you family, you have always been employed in that industry. You now operate your own butchery business and employ five qualified butchers and one apprentice. You are financially secure. You are described as devoted to your family and business. It is difficult to reconcile then why you would agree to transport drugs, believing they were going to be on-sold. It is said through your counsel, that on the day you transported the drugs, you were asked to do a favour for another person. I take into account it was a single occasion and you were not rewarded financially for transporting the drugs. No explanation, beyond it was a terrible mistake, is offered to explain why you simply did not decline the request. The quantity you transported was more than five times the trafficable quantity. Methylamphetamine, even as speed, is a destructive drug which leads to misery for its user and has a ruinous effect within our community. It causes significant harm and your actions assisted in the dissemination of the drug into our community. The fact that you were willing to do that requires a punishment which reflects the need for both personal and general deterrence. It must be understood that those who choose to involve themselves with drug trafficking will face serious penalty.
I take into account your plea of guilty, although note it was entered on the day the trial was due to commence. It nevertheless retains some utilitarian value. In my view a period of imprisonment is the only appropriate sentencing response. Given, however, your lack of relevant prior convictions and your otherwise good prospects, I intend to suspend the operation of that period of imprisonment. I make the following orders.
You are convicted and sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment. The execution of that period of imprisonment is wholly suspended on condition that you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years. I make a forfeiture order in respect of the drug items seized.