R v Cunniffe

[2013] QSC 330

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

R v Cunniffe [2013] QSC 330

PARTIES:

THE QUEEN
v
JASON MATTHEW CUNNIFFE
(defendant)

FILE NO/S:

Indictment 464/12 and Bench charge sheet 517/13

DIVISION:

Trial Division

PROCEEDING:

Sentencing

ORIGINATING COURT:

Supreme Court of Queensland

DELIVERED ON:

5 November 2013, ex tempore

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATES:

24 September and 11 October 2013

JUDGE:

Dalton J

ORDERS:

Rulings on evidence.

Various sentences imposed.

CATCHWORDS:

CRIMINAL LAW – SENTENCE – SENTENCING PROCEDURE – where there were alleged trafficking offences relating to an arrest in October 2010 and an arrest in September 2011 – where the defendant pleaded guilty in the Magistrates Court to charges relating to only the 2010 offending – where the Crown then framed the indictment to cover the whole of the 2010 and 2011 offending – where the Crown submitted that the trafficking charge on the indictment was a different charge from that to which the defendant pled guilty in the Magistrates Court so that s 600 of the Criminal Code was inapplicable – where there was an alleged agreement made as to how the Crown would proceed – whether there was an agreement – whether there was a departure from an agreement - whether any such agreement is enforceable or gives rise to an estoppel – where there was no application to stay the indictment – whether the evidence should be excluded for unfairness or public policy reasons – whether abuse of process or bad faith

Criminal Code 1899 (Qld), s 600

AB v R (1999) 198 CLR 111
Barac v DPP; Barac v Stirling [2007] QCA 112
Churchill Fisheries Export Pty Ltd v Director-General of Conservation [1990] VR 968
R v Playford [2013] QCA 109
Williamson v Trainor [1992] 2 Qd R 572

COUNSEL:

J Robson for the Crown
E Mac Giolla Ri for the defendant

SOLICITORS:

Director of Public Prosecutions (Queensland) for the Crown
Fisher Dore for the defendant

HER HONOUR:   On 11 October 2013, the defendant in this matter, Mr Cunniffe, pleaded to nine counts on an indictment in this court.  The first count was a count of trafficking between 31 July 2010 and 7 April 2012.  The trafficking was alleged to have been in the drugs methylamphetamine, MDMA, and cannabis.  The remaining counts on the indictment were, in effect, the particulars of the trafficking, and they fall into two groups:  one relating to the first search of the defendant’s premises and his arrest on 27/10/2010, and the second group relating to the second search of the defendant’s premises and his arrest on 22 September 2011.  In the first such group: count two was that the defendant was in possession of a sum of money obtained from trafficking; count three was that he was in possession of MDMA; count four was that he was in possession of methylamphetamine in excess of two grams; count five was that he was in possession of a document containing instructions as to how to produce cannabis.  All of those counts related to 27 October…