STATE OF TASMANIA v DREW ALEXANDER JONES 21 AUGUST 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Drew Jones, you plead guilty to one count of dealing with the proceeds of crime. Although the charge against you is comprised in one count, the criminal conduct extended over the period between 13 June 2023 and 22 April 2025 and concerned three separate occasions on which you were found by the police with significant quantities of cash.
Just after 3.00am on 13 June 2023, the police attempted to intercept the motorcycle you were riding in suburban Launceston. You sped off, crashed the motorcycle and then attempted to flee on foot even though you had inured your leg and foot. You were found a couple of hours later with $6,165 in cash in a bum bag, along with 19.2 grams of methylamphetamine, a small quantity of cocaine and a suboxone strip.
Just under two years later, on 17 April 2025, you were driving in Launceston. Again, the police attempted to intercept you but you failed to stop and drove off. They found your vehicle soon afterwards, parked outside a house not far away. You were not there, but inside the car was a small unregistered .22 pistol with three rounds in the centre console, a zip lock bag containing methylamphetamine, suboxone strips and $8,065.50 in cash.
About a week later, on 22 April 2025, you were found and arrested. In your bum bag you had two snap lock bags containing methylamphetamine, some buprenorphine and $3,510 in cash.
The charge to which you plead guilty concerns only the cash, which totals $17,750.50. It is correctly submitted on your behalf that your plea of guilty involves an admission only that you had a reasonable suspicion that the cash was proceeds of crime, not that you knew or believed it was. However, no explanation for your possession of the cash has been offered. In the circumstances in which the cash was found, it could hardly have been otherwise than proceeds of crime. No charge arises directly from your possession of drugs and firearms, but they give a strong indication of a criminal lifestyle and that the cash was criminal proceeds. Firearms of that nature are a well-recognised accoutrement of criminal activity. The amounts involved are not great compared to some cases, but the crime demonstrates your continuing disregard for the law over a prolonged period. The crime involved three separate occasions of criminal conduct, the second and third after you had already been apprehended for the previous occasion or occasions. The crime was committed when you were on bail and were, for some of the time, subject to a suspended sentence. The mitigation which arises from your deprived and traumatic background is to be balanced against the need to protect the public and for specific deterrence. I accept that there might be a reduced need for general deterrence, but it is still a relevant sentencing factor.
You are now aged almost 28. You are entitled to mitigation from your plea of guilty. It avoids the need for a trial and indicates a willingness to facilitate justice and accept responsibility. You have written a letter expressing your remorse and a wish to be rehabilitated. It was submitted that your plea of guilty inherently carries an expression of remorse. I give the claim to remorse very little weight. Your conduct over time provides a more reliable indication. I was informed of your personal circumstances by your counsel and in a report dated 3 August 2026, written by a representative of an alcohol and drug service conducted by Youth, Family & Community Connections Inc, a not-for-profit community organisation in northern Tasmania. You are an aboriginal man. Your life has been impacted by intergenerational trauma, personal trauma and chronic exposure to violence and substance abuse. You were introduced to heavy substance abuse and criminality through your immediate family at an early stage. There has been little or no stability or support provided to you throughout your life. This is reflected in your criminal record. It commences as a youth. You have a long record for violence, serious driving offences, firearm offences and anti-social offending. You have served periods of detention and then, as an adult, terms of imprisonment. Sentences have been imposed which were directed at the prospect of your rehabilitation. Sentences were deferred and suspended. Supervision in the community was provided for. A drug treatment order was made, but all to little result. I will refer specifically to some of the more recent sentences. They are relevant to totality and to the terms of the sentencing orders I make.
On 30 November 2023, you were sentenced by a magistrate for a series of driving, drug, firearm and bail offences committed earlier that year, not long after having been released from earlier terms of imprisonment. You were taken back into custody following your arrest on 13 June 2023 for part of the conduct I am now dealing with. On 30 November, the magistrate imposed a term of imprisonment of 148 days but backdated that term to enable your release on that day, subject to a drug treatment order with a custodial part of seven months. Again, you did not take advantage of the opportunity offered to you and you quickly returned to offending. You spent late 2023 and almost all of 2024 in custody. On 18 April 2024, a magistrate sentenced you to a total term of imprisonment of 12 months from 22 January 2024. I infer that the drug treatment order was cancelled. On 5 June 2024, you were sentenced for a further count of evading police, this one committed on 25 December 2023, less than a month after the drug treatment order was made. The 12 week partly suspended sentence was served concurrently with the other sentence. On my calculations you were due for release from those sentences on 21 January 2025. Since then, you have spent further prolonged periods in custody, I infer on remand for further charges including this one. Some of the offending covered by the indictment occurred soon after your release. Since your release on 21 January 2025, you have spent 412 days in custody. On the information given to me, none of that time has been taken into account in any other sentence. It is just that the sentence I impose does take it into account. The result is that the sentence I impose will be expressed to commence on 5 July 2025.
No application is made for breach of a suspended sentence.
I take into account that you have likely been institutionalised because of the periods of detention and custody you have served. I am informed that rehabilitative services will be available to you on your release through the Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation. You again express a wish to rehabilitate yourself, but you have done little or nothing in the past to demonstrate a willingness to act on that intention. In any event, that will have to await resolution of other matters for which you continue to be remanded in custody. In those circumstances, I see little point in allowing for parole. Your record tends against such an order in any event.
You are convicted on the indictment. I am satisfied that the sum of $17,750 is tainted property as the proceeds of crime, and that no hardship will result from its forfeiture. I order, pursuant to the Crime (Confiscation of Profits) Act 1993, s 16(1) that the money is forfeited to the State. You are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of ten months, commencing 5 July 2025. I order that you not be eligible for parole in respect to that term.