STATE OF TASMANIA v JULIAN MATTHEW TUCCERI 29 JULY 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE CUTHBERTSON J
Julian Matthew Tucceri, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with one count of trafficking in a controlled substance and one count of dealing with proceeds of crime. The charge of trafficking brought against you, referred to you as a Giretti allegation, is that between 24 July 2019 and 24 January 2023, you engaged in the business of purchasing and then selling cocaine and methylamphetamine for a profit. The charge of dealing with proceeds of crime relates to a sum of $27,960 in cash that was located at your home by police on 6 July 2021. It is the State’s case that this cash was part of the proceeds from your drug trafficking business.
Evidence of your drug trafficking came to police attention some time before 6 July 2021. As a consequence of that information, your home was placed under covert surveillance. On 6 July 2021, a car was seen leaving your home and police decided to stop and search it. During the course of the search, they found a small snap lock bag containing cocaine which the driver said he had purchased from you for $300. Police then obtained a warrant to search your unit the same day. You were at home at the time of the search. A number of items were found, including snap lock bags containing cocaine or mixtures of cocaine and methylamphetamine and cocaine and MDMA. A total of 12.6 grams of cocaine, 9.8 grams of methylamphetamine and .1 of a gram of MDMA mixed with cocaine were located in 16 separate snap lock bags. In addition, police located a set of electronic scales and other snap lock bags. $1,610 cash was found in your wallet and a further $26,350 in cash was found in snap lock bags inside a shopping bag concealed in the lounge. A shortened single barrel Winchester shot gun was found with the cash. A shotgun shell and a number of .22 calibre bullets were also located during the course of the search. Your DNA was later found on many of these items including the shotgun, the containers and snap lock bags in which the drugs were located, and the book safe containing the bullets.
You had a CCTV system installed at your unit. The hard drive and your mobile phone were seized and analysed by police. The messages found on your phone and images downloaded from the CCTV hard drive record you carrying on your drug trafficking business in the seven months between 21 November 2020 and 6 July 2021. Many of the messages were exchanged using secured encrypted messaging services such as Wickr and Signal, a sample of which I have considered, and are indictive of drug trafficking. They indicate you generally sold drugs in gram amounts, but occasionally sold a ball of drugs which is 3.5 grams. You sold a gram for between $300 and $400. According to the messages I have viewed, the price you offered depended on the quality of the drugs you had available. The images downloaded from the CCTV show people attending your unit to purchase drugs at times that accord with text messages making those arrangements. You also delivered drugs to your customers. The messages also indicate you engaged two other people to deliver drugs on your behalf and that you had been operating this business for 2 years.
You were interviewed by police after the search and made no significant admissions. The subsequent investigation included an examination of your bank account. There were a number of deposits made by third parties and of cash to your account prior to 6 July 2021. Those deposits appeared to stop for a period but restarted shortly after. In the entire charge period, a total of $118,137 was deposited in the form of such transfers and cash deposits. There were a number of car and insurance related deposits that I have excluded from this figure. Even accepting that some of these transactions were legitimate, it is clear that considerable sums of cash and other funds were passing through your bank account during the relevant period at a time when you were unemployed and in receipt of Centrelink benefits.
The State accepts that your trafficking is not as serious as other matters in the sense that you were dealing in small amounts. You dealt directly to users of these drugs. While there is evidence you engaged two other people to assist in delivering and selling the drugs, generally you did this on your own account. Your offending does, however, have some serious features. The drugs involved are drugs of addiction. You maintain that you only intended to sell cocaine, and did not know the drugs you sold were at times mixed with methylamphetamine. Nevertheless, cocaine is a significant drug of abuse in its own right. The period of time over which you engaged in drug trafficking is also significant. You continued to offend after your activities had been detected by police and while you were on bail after being charged in September 2021 . The evidence suggests that you recommenced dealing or trafficking in drugs within a short period of time of the search. You continued to engage in that business for another two years.
You are 38 years old. You are single but have a young son from a previous relationship. You have been in receipt of a disability support pension since you were 17 years old. I am told the pension was granted on the basis of a borderline personality disorder, anxiety, depression and childhood trauma. You finished grade 10, but left part way through year 11. You have experienced significant childhood trauma. You were largely raised by your grandmother as your parents separated and your mother did not provide a safe environment for you as a child. You commenced smoking cannabis at the age of 14, initially on a social basis. When you dropped out of school, you started to use it more regularly. You were later introduced to amphetamines by associates. You began to use this drug from the age of 17, primarily funding your habit with your pension and money borrowed from your grandmother. I am told that methylamphetamine became your drug of choice when you were 23.
You commenced a relationship with the mother of your child in 2013. Your son was born in 2016. You have maintained an amicable relationship with your former partner for your son’s sake. You started living at the unit the subject of the police search in 2018. At that time, you were still using illicit drugs. I am told that you started selling drugs on an occasional basis, but only at the request of existing users. It is asserted that this is not a case where you went out of your way to offer drugs for sale. I am told you initially used the proceeds of your drug sales to spend money on your son, however, you accept that those drug sales increased, as did the profits.
I am told that at the beginning of 2025, you voluntarily ceased using drugs. You engaged with a counsellor from Anglicare to help you. You have, however, continued to use cannabis, so cannot claim to be “drug free”. You have long term plans to obtain employment and get off the disability support pension. You have made changes in your life, including by distancing yourself from the people you engaged with during the course of your drug trafficking business. You have changed your phone number and moved address. In September 2023, you were hit in the head with an axe. You have experienced memory difficulties since then, although you are not receiving any ongoing treatment for your head injury. You care for your son on a week on, week off basis. He has ADHD and is currently unmedicated. You advised Community Corrections that you have some difficulties dealing with his behaviour. They report that you are currently prescribed medication for anxiety and have been taking those medications for approximately four years. The medical records sighted by Community Corrections confirm you have a long standing history of mental health concerns, including severe anxiety with panic symptoms, emotional dysregulation, fear of abandonment and impaired anger control. You also have a reported history of medication overdoses. You reported to Community Corrections that you used methylamphetamine on a daily basis in your 20’s for approximately seven years, although you were unable to recall your level of use due to your poor memory. You advised Community Corrections you had ceased using methylamphetamine prior to your son being born. You reported that you were using cocaine at the time of this offending, although you were again unable to recall your level of use due to your poor memory. This information is in some respects inconsistent with that provided to the Court by your counsel.
You have a number of drug related prior convictions including for possession of drugs, possessing things used for the administration of drugs, and drug driving (two counts in 2015). In 2023, you were convicted of failing an oral fluid test and blood test in September 2022. In addition, you have youth justice and adult prior matters for common assault, offences against police, dishonesty offences and driving matters. You were sentenced to perform community service in 2012, but otherwise have received convictions and fines. You have never been sentenced to detention or imprisonment. You have no prior matters of trafficking, selling or supplying drugs.
I requested that Community Corrections assess you for suitability for home detention and other community based orders. The report confirms you are now prescribed medicinal cannabis. You are assessed as suitable for the imposition of a Home Detention Order (HDO) and for community-based supervision. Case management would focus on encouraging you to engage with family and personal relationships, engage with employment and counselling services and address your substance use and mental health issues. You have also been assessed as eligible for referral to the EQUIPS Addiction Program. You have been assessed as unsuitable for the imposition of community service due to your physical and mental health issues. Community Corrections consider that you would be unsuitable for an HDO that required you to remain at your home detention address at all times unless approved by a probation officer. They consider that your “assessed risk level and identified criminogenic needs do not warrant the level of restriction imposed by full-time confinement, which is generally reserved for individuals whose risks cannot be managed under less restrictive models”. Additionally, they are concerned that increased confinement to the home may adversely affect your current mental health. I appreciate the risk management lens that has been applied by Community Corrections in formulating their recommendations, however, I am required to impose a sentence that gives effect to a broader range of considerations, such as punishment, and the need to deter you and others from committing like offences.
As is commonly the case with offences of this type, the State is unable to say how much you made from your trafficking business or how much you in fact trafficked. The State says that if you sold on average 1 gram per day at $375 per gram, the return would have been $479,250 over the course of the charge period. It is put on your behalf that it is a matter of speculation that you were selling on average one gram per day for that amount.
In my view, the evidence suggests that you were selling drugs on a regular basis and making not inconsiderable amounts of money from your trafficking. The presence of a large amount of cash at your premises at the time of the search on 6 July 2021 provides some indication of the volume and value of transactions you engaged in, particularly when considered with the significant sums of money being deposited into your bank account. During the charge period, for example, over $16,000 was deposited by someone you identified during the plea in mitigation as a “friend”. Your ex-partner, who you referred to in messages as “doing runs” for you when you had childcare responsibilities, deposited $10,700 into your bank account. You apparently have no legitimate source of income, having never worked. None of the deposits I have referenced have anything to do with your receipt of Centrelink benefits. It was submitted on your behalf that your engagement in this business was related to your own use of drugs. I accept you have used drugs in the past, however the information provided to the Court was inconsistent. You told Community Corrections you had ceased using methylamphetamine (knowingly) prior to the birth of your son. You admitted to using some cocaine. In any event, you are unable to provide any real detail of the level of your use, blaming your poor memory. I find it difficult to accept that you would not be able to provide at least some general detail of the extent of your use during that time. It rather suggests that your own use of drugs and the funding of that use may not have been the primary motivation for your engagement in this trafficking business.
I take into account your plea of guilty, but it came at a late stage. You had your first appearance in the Magistrates Court on these matters on 20 September 2021. You pleaded not guilty on 23 December 2021 and were committed to the Supreme Court to appear on 15 March 2022. You were still offending at that time. The indictment was filed on 10 April 2025 incorporating the offending you engaged in subsequent to the initial charging. Crown papers were filed in September 2025 and January 2026. This matter was listed as a priority two trial during the first criminal sittings this year. You indicated you would plead guilty during the call over of the list.
This offending is very serious. The drugs found in your possession amounted to approximately 20 one gram deals. You had a substantial quantity of cash in your possession as well which you have not disputed was part of the proceeds of your criminal conduct. The location of the firearm with that cash is an aggravating feature. I am not dealing with any charges related to the possession of that firearm. Its presence in your house, however, does highlight the serious nature of your trafficking business. Your offending is further aggravated by continuing to engage in drug trafficking after the search in July 2021 and while you were subject to court imposed bail.
This Court has stated many times that trafficking in drugs of addiction is an extremely serious offence. I accept that you understood you were trafficking in cocaine rather than methylamphetamine. There is no suggestion in your messages with customers that you were intending to offer methylamphetamine for sale. Clearly, customers of drug dealers like you are running the very real risk of not getting what they paid for. As I have already noted, cocaine is a drug of abuse. You have engaged in the business of selling it on a very regular basis for a period in excess of three years. While it is not possible to quantify how much you money you gained during the course of your business, I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that it was a significant amount that well exceeded $100,000.
In respect of your trafficking matter, I would have imposed a period of imprisonment. I have, however, determined it would be appropriate to impose a home detention order. You have not been to prison before. You have not previously been the subject of suspended sentences of imprisonment. There are factors in your background that have likely contributed to your use of drugs and subsequent engagement in this conduct that are relevant to the sentencing exercise. It will be a lengthy order and is intended to operate as a significant punishment for your conduct and restrict your freedom. You will be confined to your HDO address for extended periods of time in order to sheet home to you the seriousness of your conduct. I am mindful of the potential impact on your mental health and will fashion the order accordingly. There will be strict conditions, and if they are breached you will be brought back to Court, and an actual term of imprisonment may be substituted.
Julian Tucceri, you are convicted of the charges on the indictment. You are sentenced to home detention on both charges for an operational period of 15 months. The home detention order takes effect from today.
The terms of the home detention orders will be set out in a written document that will be provided to you. All core conditions of the home detention orders will be in force for the operational period of the orders. Those core conditions include that you:
- Must not commit an offence that is punishable by imprisonment;
- You must reside at the home detention premises, namely [address];
- You must be at the home detention premises at all times between 4:00pm and 10:00am each day, unless:
(i) you are travelling to or from, or are at, premises at which you are seeking urgent medical treatment or dental treatment; or
(ii) it is necessary to not be on the premises in order to avoid, or minimise a serious risk of, the death of, or injury to, you or another person; or
(iii) with the approval, of a probation officer or prescribed officer, given –
- so as to enable you to comply with a special condition; or
- so as to enable you to seek or engage in employment; or
- so as to enable you to attend an educational or training course or activity; or
- so as to enable you to attend a rehabilitative or re-integrative activity or program; or
- so as to enable you to attend a court; or
- for any other purpose approved by the probation officer or prescribed officer;
(d) You must permit a police officer, probation officer or prescribed officer to enter the home detention premises;
(e) You must permit a police officer to –
(i) conduct a search of the home detention premises; and
(ii) conduct a frisk search, within the meaning of the Search Warrants Act 1997 , of you, at the home detention premises or at any other place or premises; and
(iii) take a sample of a substance found on the home detention premises or on the person of you;
(f) You must comply with any reasonable and lawful directions of a probation officer or prescribed officer, including any directions as to the kind of employment, or the place of employment, of you;
(g) You must submit to electronic monitoring including by wearing or carrying an electronic device;
- You must not, without reasonable excuse, remove, tamper with, damage, disable or interfere with the proper functioning of any device or equipment used for the purpose of electronic monitoring;
- You must not permit, without reasonable excuse, another person to remove, tamper with, damage, disable or interfere with the proper functioning of any device or equipment used for the purpose of electronic monitoring;
- You must comply with all reasonable and lawful directions given to you in relation to the electronic monitoring, including in relation to the installation, attachment or operation of a device, or a system, used for the purposes of electronic monitoring by:
- a police officer;
- a probation officer or prescribed officer; or
- another person whose functions involve the installation or operation of a device, or a system, used for the purposes of electronic monitoring.
- You must, if directed to do so by a police officer, probation officer or prescribed officer, submit to a breath test, urine test, or other test, for the presence of an illicit drug;
- You must, if directed by a probation officer or a prescribed officer to engage in a personal development activity, counselling, or treatment, engage in the activity, counselling or treatment in accordance with any directions given by the probation officer or prescribed officer.
Your home detention order is also subject to the following special conditions during the operational period of the order:
- You must attend the Community Corrections office at Level 1, 75 Liverpool Street, Hobart for induction onto this order no later than 3:00pm today;
- You must maintain in operating condition an active mobile phone service, provide the contact details to Community Corrections and be accessible for contact through this device at all times;
- You must submit to the supervision of a Community Corrections officer as required by that officer;
- You must not take any illicit or prohibited substances. Illicit and prohibited substances include:
- Any controlled drug as defined by the Misuse of Drugs Act 2001 (Tas);
- Any medication containing an opiate, benzodiazepine, bupropion, hydrochloride or pseudoephedrine unless you provide written evidence from your medical professional that you have been prescribed the relevant medication;
- You must not consume alcohol, and you must, if directed to do so by a police officer or Community Corrections officer, submit to a breath test, urine test, or other test, for the presence of alcohol;
- You must undergo assessment and treatment for drug dependency as directed by a probation officer;
- You must submit to medical, psychological or psychiatric assessment or treatment as directed by a probation officer;
- If directed by a probation officer, you must attend, participate in, and complete the EQUIPS Addiction Program as directed.
I also make an order pursuant to s 11(1)(a) of the Crime (Confiscation of Profits) Act 1993 that the $27,960 located by police at [address] on 6 July 2021 be forfeited to the State as proceeds of crime. I also make a forfeiture order pursuant to s 38 of the Misuse of Drugs Act in respect of the following items on the property seizure record dated 6 July 2021. Those items are 4, 9, 10, 14, 14d, 14f, and 16 to 27.