R v Mitric

[2017] SASCFC 178

SUPREME COURT OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

(Court of Criminal Appeal)

R v MITRIC

[2017] SASCFC 178

Judgment of The Court of Criminal Appeal

(The Honourable Justice Blue, The Honourable Justice Stanley and The Honourable Justice Hinton)

22 December 2017

CRIMINAL LAW - APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL - APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE - GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE  - SENTENCE MANIFESTLY EXCESSIVE OR INADEQUATE

CRIMINAL LAW - APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL - APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE - GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE  - PARITY BETWEEN CO-OFFENDERS AND OTHER RELATED OFFENDERS

CRIMINAL LAW - APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL - APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE - GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE  - OTHER MATTERS

Appeal against sentence.

On 21 August 2014 police attended at the appellant’s home at Woodville Park and conducted a search. On a shelf in a laundry cupboard the police found a small plastic tub containing 11.5 grams of crystalline powder of which 7.53 grams was methylamphetamine. Sitting next to the tub was a bundle of $50 notes totalling $750 bound by a rubber band. In the lounge room, police located $4,795 cash and a set of handwritten notes in a console of the armrest of a sofa. The police also searched the appellant’s motor vehicle. In it they found $2,120 in cash in the centre console.

The appellant plead guilty to one count of trafficking in a controlled drug, contrary to s 32(3) of the Controlled Substances Act 1984 (SA). He was sentenced to imprisonment for three years and 11 months with a non-parole period of 18 months. The sentencing Judge declined to suspend that sentence and declined to order that it be served on home detention. The Judge ordered that the $750 and $2,120 be forfeited to the Crown as constituting the proceeds of crime.

The appellant’s commission of the trafficking offence was detected by police as part of a wider investigation that involved the interception of telecommunications between the appellant and others in the period August - November 2014.  That investigation revealed that two other men, Mr Vitor and Mr Schlank, were also involved in trafficking in methylamphetamine.

Subsequently, Mr Vitor and Mr Schlank also pleaded guilty to offences against s 32(3) of the Controlled Substances Act 1984 (SA). Mr Vitor was sentenced to imprisonment for three years and six months, reduced to two years, nine months and 25 days. A non-parole period of 16 months was fixed. The sentence was suspended upon Mr Vitor entering into a bond to be of good behaviour for two years.

Mr Schlank was sentenced to imprisonment for three years and six months, reduced to two years on account of his early plea. A non-parole period of 15 months was fixed.  That sentence was suspended upon Mr Schlank entering into a bond to be of good behaviour for a period of three years. 

The appellant argued that his offending was intimately linked with the offending of Mr Vitor and Mr Schlank such that his sentence offended the parity principle (ground two). He further argued that the sentence was manifestly excessive, that the…