R v Spiers

[2013] NSWDC 263

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	R v Spiers [2013] NSWDC 263
Hearing dates:	29 August 2013; 13 December 2013
Decision date:	13 December 2013
Before:	Berman SC DCJ
Decision:	Referred for assessment as to the offender's suitability to serve his sentence by way of an Intensive Corrections Order
Catchwords:	CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Form 1 - Drug Supply - Cannabis cultivation - Enhanced indoor means - Immediate admissions
Category:	Sentence
Parties:	The Crown Trevor John Spiers
Representation:	Director of Public Prosecutions - Crown O'Brien Solicitors - Offender
File Number(s):	2013/92965

SENTENCE

1. HIS HONOUR: The involvement of Trevor John Spiers with drugs began many years ago. He had been a recreational user of cannabis for 20 years and was smoking three or four joints a week. A remark by a person who supplied him with cannabis led to him to consider growing his own and so he set up a hydroponics cannabis growing operation. He became quite keen on what he was doing, enjoying not only the cheap cannabis but also the horticultural side of the activity.

1. But of course things started to escalate. He began by selling cannabis to about seven people who were recreational users of cannabis making $500 or $600 each week. After that he decided to expand his operation doubling the number of plants he had and began selling to a further eight customers making 15 in all. He was using the approximately $1,000 a week that he made from his illegal activities to pay his mortgage and various bills. He was also in the process of setting up a small business. He is a carpenter who works in scenery construction and events management. He has designed a decorative piece and he wanted to set up a business supplying those items. He could have applied for a loan of course but he saw supplying cannabis for money as a shortcut.

1. The result is that he became something of a significant drug supplier and cannabis cultivator. When he was arrested on 26 March 2013 police found a substantial hydroponics growing operation in his back shed, some harvested cannabis ready for supply and some cannabis resin which the offender had purchased and some of which he was going to on-supply. He now faces sentence for growing cannabis by enhanced indoor means and supplying cannabis. When I sentenced him for that second matter he asked me to take into account an offence of supplying cannabis resin.

1. The Crown was able to prove the supply cannabis offence not only because a harvest of cannabis was found in the shed but because of immediate admissions that Mr Spiers made to police. Were it not for those admissions the Crown would have had no evidence capable of establishing earlier supplies by Mr Spiers. The supply charge related to 4 kg of cannabis made up of 1.3 kg seized by the police, plus 2.7 kg which Mr Spiers admitted to supplying in the 12 months before his arrest.

1. Consistent with…