STATE OF TASMANIA v LEIGH BRIAN McREDMOND 2 APRIL 2020
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BLOW CJ
Mr McRedmond, you have pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance. The controlled substance was ecstasy or MDMA. You have also pleaded guilty to eight summary offences that I will deal with under s 385A of the Criminal Code.
In August of last year you placed a mail order for an ounce of ecstasy. That cost you $2,000. It was posted to you from the mainland. You were living in Rosebery. Someone from Australia Post contacted the police. They intercepted the package, removed the ecstasy, and substituted something else. When you went to the post office to collect the package, you were arrested. The police searched you, and found small quantities of cannabis and Ice, as well as a smoking device. They searched your home and found more cannabis, including about 3 grams of smokeable cannabis mixture and some seeds, as well as a used smoking device and a used smoking pipe. You co-operated with the police, took part in an interview, and made full admissions, including admissions to offences that the police would not otherwise have been able to prove. You told them that you had used cannabis and Ice the previous day, that you had grown a cannabis plant in your backyard and harvested 6½ ounces from it, and that you had supplied two or three people with cannabis for free in the previous two months. You told them that you had been selling ecstasy for $100 per gram from December 2018 to March 2019. You told them that you intended to sell half of the ecstasy that they had intercepted, and to use the rest yourself.
Altogether, you sold at least $2,400 worth of ecstasy. The street value of the intercepted package has been estimated at $3,440.
The summary offences to which you have pleaded guilty are as follows:
- Possessing cannabis leaf, stalk, seeds and oil.
- Using cannabis.
- Possessing methylamphetamine.
- Using methylamphetamine.
- Possessing a cannabis smoking device.
- Possessing two pipes for smoking methylamphetamine.
- Cultivating a cannabis plant.
- Supplying cannabis.
You are 44 years old. You suffered a serious spinal injury some 20 years ago, started using opiate-based pain medications, and moved on to use a variety of illicit drugs. To your credit, you do not have any convictions for offences of dishonesty. However you have been fined in 2008 and 2014 for driving with illicit drugs in your blood, and in 2019 for refusing an oral fluid test. You have a good employment record, but your earning capacity has been restricted by your spinal injury and you have been out of work for about two years now. You resorted to selling ecstasy because of financial difficulties, made worse by Centrelink determining that you were not eligible for a disability support pension, and only paying you a Newstart allowance.
A probation officer has reported that you feel very remorseful regarding your offending, and that you regard your behaviour as stupid. Your father is terminally ill, and you want to set things straight before he passes away.
When you appeared before me in Burnie in February, I thought that, subject to anything a probation officer might say, it might be appropriate to give you a wholly suspended sentence and require you to perform some community service. The probation officer has reported that community service is not recommended because of your physical disability. I have therefore decided that the only appropriate penalty is a wholly suspended sentence of imprisonment. I will also place you on probation, as recommended by the probation officer.
I convict you and sentence you to seven months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended on condition that you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years. I make a community correction order, to operate for a period of 12 months, with a special condition that during that period you must submit to the supervision of a probation officer as required by the probation officer. I order that the items referred to in paragraph 17 of the Crown statement of facts be forfeited to the State of Tasmania.