STATE OF TASMANIA v THOMAS JOHN RADLEY 1 JULY 2021
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Thomas Radley, you plead guilty to cultivating a controlled plant for sale. I also agreed to deal with your plea of guilty to three summary counts of possessing cannabis. On 9 April 2019 the police searched a property at York Town in northern Tasmania. The property is controlled by a man I will refer to as Mr S, although it was registered in the name of his partner. You admit that you were at least a party to cultivation of the cannabis the police found during the search.
There were three compounds on the property containing a total of 263 mature cannabis plants. Each compound was fenced with star pickets and chicken wire, was well disguised in the bush and accessed by well-worn tracks. One compound was near a small dam. The plants varied in height between four feet and well over eight feet. A police officer experienced in such things assessed the plants to be of high quality, giving the appearance of being expertly cultivated. Most of the plants were in spaced pots and were irrigated by means of poly pipe and drippers connected to a tap. Near one of the compounds was a large supply of potting mix and fertilizer. The branches of each plant were supported by metal washers, wire cables and electrical tape. They had large crowns and held large volumes of cannabis. One compound contained 67 plants, 12 of which had been harvested. The second compound contained 92 plants, 7 of which had been harvested. The third compound contained 104 plants, 20 of which had been harvested. Assuming all had been successfully harvested, the estimated yield from the plants still growing was about 100 kilograms of dried cannabis.
There was a large shed and other outbuildings on the land. The shed was divided into nine rooms. Inside one of the rooms the police found manicured cannabis hanging from wire suspended from the ceiling and several supermarket trolleys containing partly manicured stalks. In all there was 8.3 kilograms of dried cannabis. There were also scissors, heaters, fans, dehumidifiers and a large electric trimmer. In the roof space of the shed the police found unopened boxes of hydroponic growing equipment.
Mr S’s home was also searched. There the police found CCTV images of you working with him at the property, including by carrying some of the cannabis. They searched the area at a nearby caravan park where you were living and further evidence of your involvement in the cultivation was discovered, including the unused bases from the pots in which the cannabis plants were growing and other pots painted in the same manner as those in use in the bush compounds. Four cut and stripped cannabis plants were found, supported in the identical manner to the plants at York Town. You had two rooms set up for hydroponic cultivation of cannabis, one of which was behind a false wall, although there was no cannabis in either room. The police also found four cannabis stumps in the garden and cannabis leaf in a planter box in the garden and on the floor in the bedroom. Those form the basis of the three summary possession counts.
You are now aged 43. You have some prior convictions, some time ago now, for assault and for driving offences, all seemingly related to excessive alcohol consumption. You have no prior convictions for drug related offending. You come from a loving and supportive family, originally from northern New South Wales where it conducted a commercial fishing business. You have always maintained a close bond with your family and you worked in the family business until, at 26, you relocated to north Queensland. There you worked hard in fishing and other labouring positions despite a chronic back condition. In 2010, with financial assistance of your parents you purchased your own commercial fishing vessel. Regrettably the venture failed. You not only lost the boat and your livelihood but your parents were left with a substantial liability under a guarantee. The loss also took an emotional toll. Your long term relationship ended. You had used cannabis for many years, and were prone to abuse of alcohol, but you turned to methylamphetamine and became heavily addicted. About five or six years ago your parents brought you to Tasmania where, by then, they were living. Since then, with their support, you have overcome your methylamphetamine addiction but not your sense of obligation to them. Without their knowledge, you resolved to grow cannabis to sell to pay them back financially. You say that you only intended one crop. The State did not dispute your asserted belief that the crop would not have been as successful as the prosecution now suggests because of the emergence of mould which affected some of the crop and because you had to some extent lost interest. None of that explains the hydroponic equipment which was found unused.
You are entitled to mitigation from your plea of guilty. Your counsel indicated that the prosecuting authorities were notified at an early stage of your intention to plead guilty, even though it was not in fact entered until recently. A report from your general practitioner refers to a number of medical conditions. You are still affected by chronic back pain and require spinal surgery. You suffer from psoriasis which requires medication which affects your immune system. You have a level of depression, anxiety and insomnia for which you are medicated. There is no evidence that any physical or mental condition caused this offending. It may make prison more difficult for you but not to such an extent that it is a sentencing factor of significant weight. Following your arrest you returned to living in Queensland and, about a year ago, you began a new relationship to which you are keen to return. You are not charged with trafficking. The explanation may be the absence of evidence of actual sales or any sign of realisation of financial gain, at least for you. The same cannot be said for Mr S. Items of substantial value were found at the property he controlled although the source of that property is yet to be determined. Applications under the Crime (Confiscation of Profits) Act 1993 have been adjourned. Your counsel indicated she was specifically instructed to say nothing about the role of the co-accused, and thus you can only be sentenced on the basis that you are at least equally responsible for a crop which, you admit, was specifically targeted at financial gain for you. The maximum penalty provided for by the legislation for trafficking and cultivation for sale is the same. The cannabis, assuming it to have been successfully harvested, dried and sold, was worth at least $700,000 and possibly substantially more. It is possible that some undetermined part of the crop may not have reached the point of sale. When it was discovered, only a relatively small amount had been harvested and there is no evidence of sale. However it was a large and valuable crop. In Sweetman v Tasmania, a 2016 decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal, Wood J explained that crimes involving cannabis are not to be treated as less serious than offences concerning other prohibited drugs. You are not suitable for home detention because there is no suitable home detention premises. It is also reported that your mother expresses some reservations about your ability to cope with such an order. The only appropriate sentence is one of imprisonment. It is commonly the case that persons without prior convictions for trafficking or cultivating are made subject to a sentence which is wholly suspended. However I have concluded that the scale and nature of the cultivation in terms of the number and level of cultivation of plants and the potential value of the crop demands that some of the sentence I am about to impose must be immediately served.
Thomas Radley, you are convicted on the indictment and on counts 3, 4 and 5 on complaint 32709/19. I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to imprisonment for 15 months from today. I suspend 9 months of that sentence for two years on condition that during the period the order is in force you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment.