STATE OF TASMANIA v MELISSA MAREE STOCKS 24 SEPTEMBER 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE JAGO J
Melissa Maree Stocks, you have pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a controlled substance. The trafficking occurred between 25 April and 11 May 2026, so a period of about three weeks. During that time, you trafficked in methylamphetamine by way of making drug sales yourself, and also assisting your partner, James Mitchell, to facilitate drug sales.
I am also dealing with an application pursuant to s 42AJ of the Sentencing Act 1997, to cancel a period of home detention. On 4 May 2026, I sentenced you for the crime of trafficking in a controlled substance to 14 months’ home detention. Clearly, this further crime of trafficking breaches the terms of that home detention order. Indeed, it seems the current trafficking commenced whilst you were awaiting sentence for that matter.
Your detection for the current trafficking charge arose after police intercepted James Mitchell. When he was searched, police located nine grams of methylamphetamine and $1,160 in cash in a backpack that he was carrying. That led to them conducting a search, pursuant to warrant, at an address in Ulverstone. This was your home detention address. Police located a number of drugs and drug related items and some cash in the bedroom that you shared with Mr Mitchell. In total, they found approximately 20 grams of methylamphetamine. Police conducted an analysis of your phone. It revealed that you had been selling methylamphetamine, or assisting Mr Mitchell to sell methylamphetamine, on a daily basis from 25 April until 11 May 2026. You were subsequently interviewed. You made a number of comments about ongoing drug use in breach of the conditions of your home detention order, including using both cannabis and methylamphetamine. You also admitted that you had been assisting Mr Mitchell in selling methylamphetamine “nearly every day for the last two months”. Based on the admissions made by both you and Mr Mitchell, it is likely that you sold in the realm of one ounce and eight grams of methylamphetamine over the indictment period, although it is accepted, given both you and Mr Mitchell were drug users, that some of that would have been consumed.
You are 35 years of age. Your background is set out in my sentencing comments dated 4 May 2026. I do not stay to repeat them, although it is now obvious that the submissions made on your behalf by counsel indicating your commitment to addressing your drug addition, were a fallacy. You obviously had not abstained from drug use at all at the time you instructed your counsel to make those submissions. At the time I imposed the home detention order, I indicated that I was persuaded I should place considerable emphasis upon your rehabilitation in light of the endeavours you had made. Clearly, such an approach was based on a false premise and is no longer warranted. I am satisfied that I should cancel the home detention order imposed on 4 May 2026 and resentence you.
In respect to the trafficking crime that was committed between 29 July and 27 October 2023, charged on Indictment 431/2025, you are sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, commencing 11 May 2026. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served seven months of that period of imprisonment.
In sentencing you for the new offending, I bear in mind principles of totality. I also note the brief period over which you trafficked in methylamphetamine, and the moderate quantity involved. But the fact that you engaged in it whilst awaiting sentence for another trafficking charge, and continued to traffick whilst subject to a home detention order, is significantly aggravating. It strongly suggests personal deterrence weighs heavily in the sentencing exercise, and in a matter of this nature general deterrence always has much work to do. I note the letter of support that I have been provided from a family member. I take it into account but, in my view, it is not appropriate to attach significant weight to it given what I now know about your ongoing offending in the lead up to, and during the life of, the home detention order. The fact is, people who seek to profit by causing untold harm to the community by the distribution of dreadfully harmful drugs like methylamphetamine, simply must be punished. In respect to Indictment 237/2026, you are convicted of the crime of trafficking. You are sentenced to imprisonment for a period of six months, cumulative to the sentence I just imposed. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served one half of that sentence. The total period of imprisonment you will be required to serve therefore is 18 months’ imprisonment. You will not be eligible for parole until you have served ten months of that sentence of imprisonment.