R v Tassone

The appeal concerned a conviction following a jury trial for trafficking in a commercial quantity of a controlled drug and trafficking in a controlled drug, contrary to the Controlled Substances Act 1984 (SA). The appellant was found to be in possession of 1,4-Butanediol and amphetamine at his residence. The prosecution's case was based on circumstantial evidence.

The court was required to determine whether the trial had miscarried due to the jury being invited to consider mutually exclusive legal and factual pathways for conviction, the trial judge's failure to provide an extended unanimity direction, misdirections regarding the elements of the offences, or whether the verdict was unreasonable or unsupported by the evidence.

The court dismissed the appeal, finding that the verdicts were not unsafe or unsatisfactory. It was open to the jury to conclude, based on the circumstantial evidence including the location of drugs and drug paraphernalia, the quantity and street value of the substances, and the presence of a CCTV system, that the appellant was commercially involved in the illicit drug trade. The court also found that the trial judge's directions did not suggest the jury would have acted other than as one, and that there was no risk of the jury moving to an alternative basis for conviction without first reaching a consensus on the primary basis. The court agreed with the reasoning of Nicholson J regarding the dismissal of grounds two, three, four, and five.