STATE OF TASMANIA v THOMAS LINCOLN MARLOW 7 AUGUST 2025
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Thomas Marlow, you plead guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance. I am also to sentence you on the summary charges of using a controlled plant, using a controlled drug and possessing ammunition.
The basis of the trafficking charge is that between 17 December 2021 and 21 April 2023 you conducted a business of selling drugs of a commercial and systematic kind. The indictment period concludes on 21 April 2023 which was the day the police searched your home in suburban Launceston. At the time you were aged 22. In various places in the house they found cannabis, anabolic steroids, MDMA and cocaine. In all there was 21.04 grams of MDMA in capsule form, 163.5 grams of MDMA in solid form, 52.5 grams of cocaine, 453.94 grams of cannabis and 60 millilitres and 42 capsules of various anabolic steroids. The MDMA and cocaine was found packaged in snap lock bags. Other empty snap lock bags were found along with digital scales and $3,445 in cash. Your mobile phone was later examined. On it were records of amounts owed to you for drug sales and text messages evidencing sales of MDMA, cocaine and steroids between 17 September 2022 and 16 April 2023 to 20 separate persons.
The records of your bank account were obtained and examined. They disclosed that between 17 December 2021 and the day of the search you had made regular withdrawals of large amounts of cash and received 513 payments by electronic transfer totalling $99,730 from 112 people who had purchased drugs from you. In addition, there were other cash sales. As to the drugs found at your house the MDMA in solid form found during the search was worth at least $32,700 and possibly more. The capsules were worth at least $1,300, the cocaine at least $15,750 and the cannabis about $2,500. The steroids in vials were worth only about $500 and the balance cannot be valued. The $3,445 in cash the police found was the proceeds of drug sales. However, the nature and amount of your bank account transactions and the messages on your phone reveal that these amounts form only an indication of the scale of your trafficking. The value of all the drugs sold by you during the trafficking period cannot be established.
When you were interviewed by the police you were not frank with them. You falsely claimed that the drugs they found were for your personal use. It is however accepted by the prosecution that the ammunition, although it was in your possession, was left behind by a relative and was not related to your trafficking.
You are now aged 24. You have a supportive family. You were educated in Launceston to year 12 following which you worked in bars while you were deciding what to do. You spent a lot of time at the gym. You became a heavy user of illicit substances, both steroids related to your gym use but also MDMA and cocaine. You began to sell drugs to fund your own use but the amount of sales I have described indicates that your trafficking developed well beyond that and was substantially motivated by profit. Trafficking in illicit drugs is serious for reasons which have been stated many times. They cause much damage in the community. Sentences must serve, as far as a court can achieve, to dissuade you and others who may be inclined to engage in the sale of illicit drugs for profit from doing so because of the consequences of apprehension and conviction.
The police search put an end to your drug activities. At the beginning of 2024 you commenced tertiary education at Deakin University in Victoria in exercise science and nutrition. You hope to make a career in those areas. You now support yourself by part time work supplemented by youth allowance. It is in your favour that you pleaded guilty, although the case against you is overwhelming. You have no prior convictions. Conviction for such a serious offences as this will no doubt have an impact on you throughout your life and will affect your employment and travel opportunities. You brought these things on yourself. Because you live and study interstate your circumstances are not suitable for home detention or community service. A sentence of imprisonment is the only appropriate sentence. However it is a significant step for a court to send a young person with no prior convictions to prison for the first time. Although you were old enough to know that what you were doing was wrong I infer that because of your age and immaturity you did not fully appreciate how serious it was. It is to be hoped that you have learned your lesson. In a financial sense, you will be paying for the consequences of your offending for a long time because of the forfeiture, penalty and costs orders I am about to make. I have concluded that, in your circumstances, the community interest in your rehabilitation should be given precedence. You should clearly understand that you have come very close to being sent to prison and you are unlikely to be extended such lenience a second time.
You are convicted on the indictment. You are also convicted on complaint 33143/23, counts 6, 7 and 8. On those counts, in light of the sentence I am about to impose, I make no further order. Count 4 on the complaint is dismissed. On the indictment I make the following orders. I am satisfied that the sum of $3,445 seized by the police is tainted property as the proceeds of drug sales 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. I order that the iPhone and zip lock bags seized by the police as listed on property seizure record 216617 items 6 and 20 are forfeited to the State. I assess, in accordance with the Crime (Confiscation of Profits) Act 1993, s 22, the value of the benefits derived by you from the commission of the offence in the sum of $99,730 and order that you pay to the State a pecuniary penalty equal to that sum. Pursuant to the Misuse of Drugs Act, s 36B, I assess the reasonable expense of and attending the analysis and examination of the controlled substances as $10,682 and award that sum against you as part of the costs of the prosecutor. You have 28 days to pay all of those sums but you may apply to enter into a repayment arrangement.
You are sentenced to imprisonment for 12 months, wholly suspended for two years from today. It is a condition of that order that while it is in force you do not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment. If you breach that condition then a court must order that you serve that term unless it is unjust.