STATE OF TASMANIA v DAVID RAYMOND LESLIE 31 MARCH 2023
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
David Leslie, you plead guilty to cultivating a controlled plant for sale and possessing cannabis. On 21 December 2020 the police searched your home at Hadspen. You were cultivating cannabis in two rooms of a garage in which you and your son had installed a hydroponic growing set up. There were three plants in one room and six in the other. It is accepted by everyone that this is the first crop you had grown, it had been growing for a couple of months in equipment you and your son shared the cost of, and you were helping out on the basis that half of the plants were to be his and half were yours. You did not use cannabis. Rather, you planned to sell your share when it was mature to make extra cash. You were jointly charged with your son.
Had all nine plants survived to healthy maturity they could have produced cannabis potentially worth more than $40,000 if sold in ounce quantities. However the State accepts however that not all of it was to be sold by you. You were not an experienced grower and there is no guarantee that the plants would have been as productive as I have indicated. The State accepts that this is relatively low level offending and not a commercial enterprise of much substance. However it is correct to say that offending like this is hard to detect and you and others must understand that it has consequences. Your son was fined. He did so on the basis that he was cultivating but not cultivating for sale but his prior convictions were more serious than yours.
You are now aged 58. You do have some prior convictions, most recently for alcohol related driving offences and some anti-social conduct, but none concerning drugs apart from a minor one a long time ago. You are in poor health and your only income is a disability pension. Your plea of guilty is in your favour even though it is not a particularly early plea. I do not see that there is any need for supervision. You are plainly unsuitable for community service. Home detention is not necessary. Payment of a fine will be difficult for you but I have concluded that your crime is not serious enough to warrant imprisonment, even if the sentence is wholly suspended. In all the circumstances the fine should be the same amount as was imposed on your son.
You are convicted on complaint 31214/21, counts 1 and 2. Count 3 is subsumed in count 1 and dismissed. I order that the ballast boxes, light shields and globes referred to at items 3, 4 and 5 of property seizure record 170734 are forfeited to the State. I impose one sentence. You are fined $3,000. You have 28 days to pay that amount although you will need to enter into a repayment arrangement.