R v Le

[2018] NSWDC 86

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	R v Le [2018] NSWDC 86
Hearing dates:	8 March 2018
Date of orders:	08 March 2018
Decision date:	08 March 2018
Jurisdiction:	Criminal
Before:	Berman SC DCJ
Decision:	The offender is sentenced to imprisonment consisting of a non-parole period of 2½ years with a head sentence of 6 years.
Catchwords:	CRIMINAL LAW – Sentence – Import the commercial quantity of pseudoephedrine – Explanation for serious offence by man of otherwise good character – Addiction to gambling – Gambling was path to gaol – Ready availability of outlets for gambling.
Category:	Sentence
Parties:	The Crown Van No Le
Representation:	Counsel: Ms M Fernando – the offender   Solicitors: Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions
File Number(s):	2017/55763

SENTENCE

1. HIS HONOUR: How does a man in his late 50s, a man with no inherently antisocial attitudes or lifestyle find himself importing more than four times the commercial quantity of pseudoephedrine into Australia in a way which was always going to be detected?

2. There is but one explanation in the case before me today and that is that it flowed from his addiction to gambling. Gambling is promoted, seemingly incessantly these days, as a harmless form of activity where the decision to bet is one which is undertaken with an expectation of winning. In truth, gambling is not like that at all. Very few judges would have anything good to say about the gambling industry and about various governments’ apparent addiction to it. What to many people is a harmless form of entertainment is to many in this community the path to gaol. The offender Van No Le would not be where he is today in custody facing a significant period of further time in gaol were it not for gambling.

3. Mr Le turned up at Sydney Airport on 27 February 2017, having arrived from Vietnam. He was a resident of Australia who had been in Vietnam temporarily. When he presented his incoming passenger card it was noted that he had declared that he was bringing food into Australia. Accordingly, his bag was searched, as it was always going to be once he had ticked ‘Yes’ to the appropriate question. When his bag was opened, officers found 13 packages of food or at least what appeared to be food. But concealed within each of them was pseudoephedrine of a pure weight of 5.379 kilograms.

4. We see many unsophisticated offences in these courts but this would have to be an offence so unsophisticated that the chances of it succeeding were minimal. Perhaps this reflects Mr Le’s underlying character; he is not a sophisticated criminal by any means. He is an otherwise relatively ordinary man who has done something seriously wrong because of the circumstances he found himself in.

5. Mr Le is now 59 years of age. He was raised in a stable and supportive family in Vietnam. He was not abused or neglected and his parents were good role models. After he left school he worked well…