R v Vaitaiki

[2018] NSWDC 462

District Court

New South Wales

• Amendment notes

Medium Neutral Citation:	R v Vaitaiki [2018] NSWDC 462
Hearing dates:	28 November 2018
Date of orders:	28 November 2018
Decision date:	28 November 2018
Jurisdiction:	Criminal
Before:	M L Williams SC DCJ
Decision:	Aggregate term of imprisonment of 2 years, 3 months with a non-parole period of 1 year, 6 months: at [17]
Catchwords:	SENTENCING – multiple offences – knowingly take part in the supply of a prohibited drug – supply prohibited drug – involvement and circumstances distinguished from co-offenders – guilty plea – criminal history does not entitle offender to leniency – special circumstances
Legislation Cited:	Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 (NSW)
Cases Cited:	R v Henry (1999) 46 NSWLR 346 Wat v R [2017] NSWCCA 62
Texts Cited:	None
Category:	Sentence
Parties:	Regina (Crown)   William Vaitaiki (Offender)
Representation:	Ms Anderson (Crown)   Ms Alderton (Counsel for the offender)
File Number(s):	2016/373141

Judgment

1. William Luke Vaitaiki was born in August 1983 and appears for sentence having pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly take part in supply of prohibited drug being 54 grams of methylamphetamine and another of supply 30.65 grams of methylamphetamine under s 25(1) of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 (NSW) which both carry maximum penalties of 15 years’ imprisonment with no standard non-parole period.

2. He was loosely associated with two Vietnamese gentlemen, Johnny Ly and Thai Nguyen, who I have previously sentence but their roles, the backgrounds and subjective circumstances in these cases are so disparate as to make questions of parity of little relevance. Ms Alderton of counsel for Mr Vaitaiki, has correctly pointed to the numerous differentiating factors which mean that the sentence of eight years with a five year non-parole period that I imposed on Mr Nguyen as against the intensive corrections order of two years that Mr Ly received recently in the light of his very significant rehabilitation are of little relevance to this sentencing exercise.

3. Mr Nguyen, of course, was someone whose drug dealing was of such significance that a police strike force was established in April 2016, to investigate the supply of methyamphetamine and it was into that circle Mr Vaitaiki was drawn. In May 2016, he was utilising a mobile phone service in a fictitious name. A listening device captured conversations between Nguyen and Vaitaiki and there were six transactions identified where Vaitaiki supplied or intended to supply methyamphetamine. The details are set out in the agreed facts and need not be repeated here.

4. The second count relates to activities in September 2016 when Johnny Ly’s motorcycle broke down and, because he was unable to deliver some material to Nguyen, Vaitaiki was arranged as the delivery man. Vaitaiki was not arrested until July 2017. He initially denied his involvement but when he had the telephone intercepts played to him, he declined to make any further comment.

5. He did say that he was using cannabis and 7 – 8 grams of ice per day despite being unemployed. He said he…