DOUGLAS, A S

THE KING v AARON SCOTT DOUGLAS                                      19 SEPTEMBER 2025
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE                                             CUTHBERTSON J

Aaron Scott Douglas you have pleaded guilty to a charge of importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug, namely MDMA, contrary to s 307.2(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth).

The charge relates to a suspicious package which was intercepted by Australian Border Force (ABF) members at the Australia Post Sydney Gateway Facility in New South Wales on 10 August 2020. The package was examined and found to contain 67 tablets, weighing a total of 36 grams. The tablets were contained in a heat-sealed bag located inside a silver foil bag. Subsequent analysis of samples of the tablets confirmed they contained MDMA with a purity of 30.3%. MDMA is a border controlled drug. A marketable quantity of MDMA is .5 grams or more. In total, the package contained 9.1 grams of pure MDMA, that is, 18 times the marketable quantity.

The package had been sent from the Netherlands to a “Melissa Carter” at a residential address in Tasmania.  At that time, the property was being rented by the parents of Melinda Carver who was your partner at the time.  At the time of the expected delivery of the package, you and Ms Carver were living at a caravan park located opposite that address.

On 8 September 2020, a search warrant was executed at the home you were then sharing with Ms Carver. You were both present during the search. Your mobile phone was seized. After the search of your home, you were interviewed by investigating police. You made a number of admissions including that you had ordered the drugs and paid for them using cryptocurrency. You told police you used Ms Carver’s parents’ address as you were able to monitor deliveries to their letterbox from the window of where you were living across the road. You admitted having made other orders but none of the pills had ever actually been delivered to you. You also admitted to undertaking online searches to find out what signs would trigger the interest of the ABF in packages and tried to educate the sellers overseas on ways to avoid that occurring. You told police you were aware that importing the drugs was illegal but figured it was just a couple of pills for you and your partner. You explained you had a history of drug use, had been abstinent for a lengthy period, but relapsed as a coping mechanism after the death of your sister 12 months prior.

Despite your claims that the drugs you ordered were for your own personal use, a subsequent examination of your phone identified discussions regarding the purchase, sale and prices of MDMA together with cryptocurrency applications, use of encrypted communication apps, search terms related to drugs and Australia Post tracking on multiple items.

Section 307.2(1) does not apply if a person proves on the balance of probabilities that they did not intend, or did not believe that another person intended, to sell any of the border controlled drug which they imported. By your plea of guilty, you accept that you are unable to prove that you did not intend to sell any of the drugs you imported.  Evidence to the contrary was located on your mobile phone.  The Commonwealth accepts, however, that the bulk of the drugs were for your own personal use.

You are 50 years old. You were 45 years old when you committed this offence. You had a strained relationship with your parents growing up due to your behaviour which was likely related to ADHD. I am told you have recently received a diagnosis for that condition. You have no ongoing contact with your family. You did share a close and supportive relationship with one of your sisters. When she died in 2020, you report that your mental health deteriorated rapidly. You are currently single. You have four children from former relationships. You have spent time recently reconnecting with three of your children and are currently involved in Family Court proceedings seeking orders to spend time with your youngest child.

You completed Year 10 but did not complete further secondary education. You commenced a bachelor’s degree in science and zoology, but did not complete that course. Your undiagnosed ADHD is a likely explanation for the difficulties you experienced in pursuing your education. You are currently undertaking online study in cyber security. You have been employed in the past in a variety of roles and are a qualified carpenter. You are currently in receipt of a Centrelink Jobseeker payment and intend to seek full-time work when your court matters are finalised.

You have a long history of polysubstance abuse. You have regularly used cannabis for over 20 years. You participated in opiate replacement therapy between 1999-2006 and again from 2007-2009. You have previously been engaged with the Salvation Army Bridge Program, the Alcohol and Drug Service and Holyoake Tasmania for your illicit substance use. You advise you last used methylamphetamine six months ago. You are currently prescribed medication and medicinal cannabis to manage your ADHD and other mental health issues.

You have a number of prior convictions commencing from when you were 18 years old, many of which are related to your use of drugs. These include a variety of summary drug offences such as the possession and use of a variety of drugs, driving under the influence of a drug, altering a prescription and possessing a prescription knowing it to be forged or unlawfully altered.

Aside from these drug offences, your criminal history includes dishonesty matters, serious driving charges, assaults and breaches of family violence and restraint orders. On 18 May 2007 you were sentenced to suspended periods of imprisonment on a number of complaints. One of those sentences of imprisonment was the subject of breach proceedings and activated in December 2007. In 2007, you were also sentenced to a Drug Treatment Order with a six month custodial part and a further six month period of suspended imprisonment in relation to dishonesty, drug and driving offences. In May 2009, it appears the Drug Treatment Order was cancelled and you were ordered to serve five months of the custodial part of the sentence. A further Drug Treatment Order with a nine month custodial part was made in September 2010.

You complied with that order and it was cancelled as a reward in November 2011. There is a gap in your criminal history until you were convicted of a charge of possessing a controlled plant or its products in 2017 which related to offending in 2014. You received a fine for that matter. Otherwise, you did not commit any offences of significance in the ten years between 2010 and 2020.

In January 2021 you pleaded guilty to driving matters and breaches of restraint order which occurred around the time of the offending being dealt with in this Court. Convictions were recorded; you were fined on the driving charges and gave an undertaking to be of good behaviour in respect of the breach of restraint orders. In November 2022 you pleaded guilty to a number of offences including breaches of bail, driving a motor vehicle whilst a prescribed illicit drug was present in your oral fluid namely methylamphetamine and MDMA and possessing and using drugs. Convictions were recorded and you were fined. That offending occurred in the period between 5 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.

Your prior convictions are consistent with your history of polysubstance abuse. They also reflect that you are someone who has been able to address your drug issues and maintain abstinence and stability in your life for a considerable period of time. Prior to the offending in 2020, you were in a stable relationship and working. Unfortunately, your sister became unwell and then passed away about six months prior to committing this offence. This affected your attendance at work, and ultimately you lost your employment. Against this background, you and your partner started using methylamphetamine. I am told your partner’s brother was staying with you at the time and offered it to you. You quickly developed a significant habit. You ordered the drugs the subject of this charge against this background.

After being charged with this offence, your situation deteriorated further. You and your partner separated. You were homeless for a period. You failed to appear in court on a couple of occasions, contributing to the delay in dealing with this matter. To your credit, you have managed to get your life back on track. You have secured accommodation and have managed to maintain the tenancy. You have a drivers licence again. You have engaged with mental health professionals, obtained a diagnosis and are being treated for ADHD and other issues. You have no pending criminal matters. I am told you have been able to draw on some of the strategies you acquired through your previous participation in the CMD program to avoid drug use and maintain a stable lifestyle.

The Commonwealth submits that your offending involved a degree of subterfuge. The Commonwealth has, however, properly acknowledged that your conduct involves a very small amount of drugs compared to that ordinarily seen with this offence provision and accepts that it sits at the lower end of the scale of offending of this type.

You made substantial admissions to police during the record of interview. You have pleaded guilty which has saved the need for a trial. These are both matters relevant to sentence: see s 16A(2)(g) and (h) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth).

You have been assessed as suitable for a home detention order. Your previous good level of engagement when participating in community based orders was noted in the assessment report, particularly your successful completion of the Drug Treatment Order made in 2010. You have also been assessed as suitable for the imposition of a Community Correction Order with supervision. You are not suitable for community service due to an injury.

Courts have frequently highlighted that in sentencing offenders for the importation of drugs  “general deterrence is to be given chief weight on sentence and that stern punishment will be warranted in almost every case”: Pham v The Queen [2016] VSCA 259 at [12]. The maximum penalty that may be imposed for breaches of s 307.2(1) is 25 years imprisonment and/or a pecuniary penalty of 5000 penalty units which equates to $1,100,000. This maximum penalty reflects Parliament’s view of the seriousness of such offending. The importation of drugs inevitably increases the availability of such substances in the community. It is well recognised that illicit drugs cause great harm, not only to those who use them, but to the community in general. As someone who has struggled with addiction yourself over many years, this must be apparent to you.

It is the case, however, that such offending occurs in a wide-range of circumstances. In this case, the Commonwealth has rightly conceded that your conduct falls within the low-range of objective seriousness. It concerns a single transaction. The quantity of drugs was not great. You are to be sentenced on the basis that there was a commercial motivation involved, but I accept you were intending to use a quantity of the drug yourself. Your criminal history alone supports that you were using MDMA in and around the time of your importation of the substance. Taking into account all the matters that are relevant and known to the Court, including your plea of guilty, admissions to police, your record of prior convictions and personal circumstances, I have determined that it is appropriate to make a home detention order in your case. Such orders may be made when sentencing an offender for a Commonwealth offence: see Crimes Act s 20AB(1) and (1AA) and Crimes Regulations 2019 (Cth) reg 15. In my view, such an order will act as a considerable deterrent, not only to you but to the community in general. You will be subject to electronic monitoring and confined to your home, unless a probation officer approves otherwise. The order I impose will also require you to be supervised by community corrections. This will facilitate your rehabilitation. I recognise that you have taken some considerable steps yourself to make the necessary changes. The orders I make will, I hope, help consolidate those efforts.

The Crimes Act requires me to provide you some information about the sentence I intend to pass before doing so. The home detention order will be in force for nine months and as I have already explained will require you to be subject to electronic monitoring and to remain at your home address at all times unless approved by a probation officer. You will also be prohibited from taking any illicit drugs during the course of the order. You are liable to be tested to monitor your compliance with that condition. If you breach the order by committing another offence punishable by imprisonment or by breaching some other condition, you may be brought back before the court. In such circumstances, the court may confirm or vary the conditions of the order if it is still in force, or cancel the order and resentence you. You or an authorised person, which includes a prosecutor or probation officer, may also apply to vary the conditions of the order or to cancel the order.

Aaron Scott Douglas, you are convicted of the charge of importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug. You are sentenced to home detention on that matter for an operational period of nine months. The home detention order takes effect from Monday 22 September 2025.

The terms of the home detention order will be set out in a written document that will be provided to you. All core conditions of the home detention orders which are set out at s 42AD(1) of the Sentencing Act (Tas) will be in force for the operational period of the order.

Those core conditions include:

  • You must not commit an offence that is punishable by imprisonment;
  • You must reside at the home detention premises, namely **address**;
  • You must be at the home detention premises at all times unless approved by a probation officer;
  • You must permit a police officer, probation officer or prescribed officer to enter the home detention premises;
  • You must permit a police officer to conduct a search of the home detention premises; conduct a frisk search of you at the home detention premises or at any other place or premises; and take a sample of a substance found on the home detention premises or on your person;
  • You must comply with any reasonable and lawful directions of a probation officer or prescribed officer, including any directions as to your kind of employment, or your place of employment;
  • You must submit to electronic monitoring including by wearing or carrying an electronic device;
  • You must not, without reasonable excuse, remove, tamper with, damage, disable or interfere with the proper functioning of any electronic device or equipment used for the purpose of electronic monitoring;
  • You must not allow, without reasonable excuse, another person to remove, tamper with, damage, disable or interfere with the proper functioning of any electronic device or equipment used for the purpose of electronic monitoring;
  • You must comply with all reasonable and lawful directions given to you in relation to the electronic monitoring, including in relation to the installation, attachment or operation of a device or a system, used for the purposes of electronic monitoring by a police officer, a probation officer or prescribed officer, or another person whose functions involve the installation or operation of a device, or a system, used for the purposes of electronic monitoring;
  • You must, if directed to do so by a police officer, probation officer or prescribed officer, submit to a breath test, urine test, or other test, for the presence of an illicit drug;
  • You must, if directed by a probation officer or a prescribed officer to engage in a personal development activity, counselling, or treatment, engage in the activity, counselling or treatment in accordance with any directions given by the probation officer or prescribed officer.

Your home detention order is also subject to the following special conditions:

  • You must attend the Community Corrections office at Hobart for induction onto this order and to be fitted with an electronic monitoring device at 10.00am on 22 September 2025;
  • You must, during the operational period of the order, maintain in operating condition an active mobile phone service, provide the contact details to Community Corrections and be accessible for contact through this device at all times;
  • You must submit to the supervision of a Community Corrections officer as required by that officer;
  • You must not take any illicit or prohibited substances. Illicit and prohibited substances include:
  • Any controlled drug as defined by the Misuse of Drugs Act 2001 (Tas);
  • Any medication containing an opiate, benzodiazepine, bupropion, or pseudoephedrine unless you provide written evidence from your medical professional that you have been prescribed the relevant medication.