CDirector of Public Prosecutions v Wong

[2025] VCC 1572

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-25-00127

CR-25-01382

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS (Cth)

v

WEI WONG

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	29 October 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	29 October 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	CDPP v Wong
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 1572

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:  CRIMINAL LAW - SENTENCING     

Catchwords:  Attempting to import marketable quantity of a border controlled   drug – trafficking a marketable quantity of a controlled drug –   moderately high moral culpability – commenced offending to   support drug habit – no criminal history – reasonable prospects   of rehabilitation – general deterrence – denunciation –  punishment -

Legislation Cited:

Cases Cited:

Sentence: Total effective sentence 7 years 6 months, non-parole period 4 years 6 months, s 6AAA: 10 years, non-parole period 7 years

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	M. Keks	CDPP
For the Accused	T. Sullivan	May Lawyers

HIS HONOUR: 

1Wei Wong, you have pleaded guilty to charges on two indictments.

2On the first Commonwealth indictment dated 31 July 2025, CR-25-00127, you pleaded guilty to attempting to import a marketable quantity of heroin and acetylcodeine on 14 May 2024.

3On the second Commonwealth indictment dated 1 August 2025, CR-25-01382, you have pleaded guilty to trafficking a marketable quantity of methylamphetamine and possessing small quantities of methamphetamine and heroin on 26 June 2024,

4The agreed basis for your guilty plea is set out in the combined summary of prosecution opening dated 29 October 2025.

5In short, on 14 May 2024 you received a chat message from an associate providing you with details of a consignment shipped to an address in Box Hill from Thailand.  Later that day you called the freight company, identified the consignment by tracking number and referred to it as your parcel and attempted to redirect its delivery to a different address of your choosing.

6Ultimately, the consignment was later examined and found to contain 871.4 grams of pure heroin and 783.3 grams of pure acetylcodeine (first indictment, Charge 1).

7On 7, 27 and 28 May 2024, you spoke on various phone calls to an associate about keeping 'stuff' at your place, the price of the 'stock' and the price of said products.

8Your counsel conceded that this related to drugs then in your possession.  You have not been charged in relation to this, however, as your counsel agreed it forms part of the context of your offending.

9On 26 Jun 2024 police executed a search warrant at your home and arrested you.  Upon searching they found

·385 grams of pure methamphetamine (second indictment, Charge 1, trafficking a marketable quantity);

·0.4 gram pure methamphetamine (Charge 2, possessing a drug of dependence); and

·1.3 gram of pure heroin (Charge 3, possessing a drug of dependence).

They also found multiple mobile phones, 26 SIM cards, clip seal bags, scales, foil and glass pipes consistent with your use of drugs and their sale.

10Following your arrest on 26 June 2024 police interviewed you.  You confirmed your address, phone number and ownership of numerous handsets, otherwise you made no comment on the allegations.

11You were remanded in custody and have remained there since.

12You contested the allegations on the first indictment until the court ruled against you on a legal argument on 6 October 2025.  You then sought a sentence indication which was given on 23 October 2025 and which you accepted.  The trial in this matter was listed for 19 November 2025.

13You pleaded guilty to the charges on the second indictment without contest on 21 August 2025 at a directions hearing.

14I accept that your guilty pleas in relation to each charge across both indictments indicate your acceptance of responsibility for your wrongdoing, your willingness to facilitate the course of justice and that they have avoided the need for the cost and inconvenience of trials.  I also accept that your pleas suggest remorse. 

15Each of these matters attracts leniency in sentencing you.  I have taken into account the stages of each case at which you have entered your plea.  The reduction in sentence on the first indictment will be lower proportionately, consistent with the later stage of the plea and the proximity of the trial.

16You are now 29 years old, having come to Australia about eight years ago from Malaysia where you were born.

17You were raised by your mother along with two older siblings, and you attended school until aged about 13.  You then left and worked in various jobs as a carpark attendant and kitchen hand.

18By age 19 you were seeking some focus for your life and with your mother's support you travelled to Australia on a tourist visa in 2016.  Here you worked as a painter and by 2020 you were managing a crew of workers in Canberra.  You learnt better English on the job.

19As Covid hit the owner of the painting business left Australia and you were left without an income.  You travelled to Melbourne around that time, staying in share houses where you were introduced to methamphetamine.  You started using that drug which led you to dealing to others.

20In 2021 you applied for a refugee visa.  In 2022 you met your present girlfriend online.  She lives in Penang, Malaysia, and you speak with her almost every day by phone.

21By early 2024 you were trafficking and involved in the importation of drugs as reflected in the current charges.

22Your visa application was refused, and you remain in Australia only because of your remand on these offences.

23You have no criminal history.

24In prison you have maintained contact with your partner and to a lesser extent your mother.  Understandably, she is concerned about you. 

25You have recently completed the Ice and Me program and are working as a billet and cleaner in your unit.  This suggests you are using your time wisely and perhaps that you have the capacity to make pro-social contributions to your community on your release.

26As for the future, you look forward to returning to Malaysia where you hope to take up work as a street food vendor in a small business recently started by your mother.

27The maximum penalty for Charge 1 on the first indictment, and Charge 1 on the second indictment, is 25 years' imprisonment each.

28For Charges 2 and 3 on the second indictment, the maximum is five years each.

29The objective gravity of your offending is to be understood in the context of the significant quantities you dealt with and your repeated offending.  In the full context of the agreed facts, I find that you knew that you were engaging in the drug trade during the period alleged covering both incidents.

30While I accept you may well have commenced doing so in support of your own emerging drug habit, your offending conduct went well beyond that.  Your attempted importation and trafficking were for profit, and I find that the likely profit to be gained from the amounts you dealt with would have been substantial.

31The harm done to individual users of these drugs is considerable.  The community as a whole must also bear the high cost of healthcare, drug rehabilitation, detection and prosecution that such offences require.  Your offences are not victimless crimes.

32Overall, I find your blameworthiness for these offences to be moderately high.

33In sentencing you for these kinds of offences the need to deter others from doing the same is a consideration that must attract significant weight.  The need to deter you from further offending is also not to be ignored given your repeated involvement in the drug trade in this case.  Your conduct must be roundly denounced, and you must bear the brunt of just punishment proportionate to the seriousness of your offending.

34The prosecutor has alleged no criminal history against you, and you have pleaded guilty to the charges.  This, in combination with your relatively young age, means that I find your prospects for rehabilitation to be reasonable.

35I accept you will spend your time in custody somewhat anxious about your mother because you will not be able to work with her or support her for an extended period.  I also accept that your absence is likely to have an effect on her.

36I will make orders such that a substantial part of the sentences run concurrently so as not to impose a crushing sentence, but also to ensure the total sentence is proportionate to what you did.

37Both the prosecutor and your counsel accepted that you must serve a significant period of time in prison, such as to attract a non-parole period.

38I sentence you as follows:

On Charge 1, first indictment, 5 years 2 months.

On Charge 1, second indictment, 6 years.

On Charge 2, second indictment, you are convicted and discharged.

On Charge 3, second indictment, you are convicted and discharged.

39The sentence on Charge 1 of the first indictment is to commence today.

40The sentence on the second indictment is commenced 18 months after the commencement of the sentence on the first.

41The total effective sentence is 7 years and 6 months.

42I fix a non-parole period of 4 years and 6 months.

43I declare that you have served 490 days and direct that this be reckoned as a period already served under this sentence.

44In accordance with s6AAA of the Sentencing Act, but for your guilty plea I would have imposed 10 years and fixed a non-parole period of 7 years.

45You have agreed to the voluntary forfeiture of various items police seized and so I do not make any such orders.

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