R v S HC Auckland CRI-2005-042-4060

[2006] NZHC 105

This case has been anonymized

IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND NELSON REGISTRY

CRI-2005-042-4060

THE QUEEN

v

J S

Hearing:         20 February 2006

Appearances: J Bonifant for Crown

J Sandston for Prisoner

Sentence:       20 February 2006

SENTENCING NOTES OF GODDARD J

[1]      J S   , you are appear today for sentence on a very serious charge, which is conspiring to supply the Class A controlled drug LSD; a charge which carries the maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment.  The presumption in cases of such  seriousness  is  that  offenders  will  be  sent  to  prison  for  the  purpose  of denouncing such offending and deterring the offender personally and others in the community from being tempted into such offending.

[2]      The background to your offending is that in early last December a 16 year old associate of yours sent you a text message asking you to obtain some LSD for him. A few days later you spoke to this associate by telephone to confirm the deal and to supply your bank  account details.   A payment of some $600  was subsequently

deposited into your account.  I accept the advice of your counsel that that money was

R V S HC NEL CRI-2005-042-4060  20 February 2006

handed by you to the police almost immediately upon your apprehension and that you were very co-operative with the police.  It seems that the drugs were intended for a New Year’s dance party and you say the intention was to supply two tabs of LSD, which you were going to source.  Obviously you were arrested before these drugs were sourced or supplied and, as I have said, when arrested and questioned you admitted your offending – you said that you were just doing a friend a favour and you were co-operative with the police.

[3]      You are 18 years of age and you are still very much a young person and one who should have his life before him if it is not wrecked by the ruination of your health and your chances by continuing down a path of drug and alcohol use.  You are said to have commenced using cannabis at a young age.  You were first exposed to the experience at about nine years of age and began using yourself at 13.  You were asked to leave school at 14, although you have to your credit since gained qualifications in computing and horticulture.  You have held a variety of jobs and I am told are currently employed in a café.  You also work as a DJ at music festivals in Golden Bay and this year you were accepted into a music engineering course at Christchurch Polytechnic.  Of course that is now not possible this year because of your arrest for this offending.  I hope that if you are serious about furthering your education in this way that you will make efforts to take up that course of study next year.    Given your drug habit and predilection for drug and alcohol abuse, you will however have to be very careful, if you are going to pursue a career in the world of music, that you do not find the one lifestyle matches the other.  That will be a test for your strength of mind.

[4]      You have only one previous conviction, in October last year, for driving with excess breath alcohol.  It is however indicative of the path of addiction along which you have been travelling.  It is also an indicator of the health risks to you.  You were sentenced to 50 hours community work for that offence which you have recently completed.  Your drug and alcohol use has been identified as a contributing factor to your offending.   As I said, you are a heavy user of cannabis and have a harmful pattern of alcohol abuse.  May I say that I find that tragic in somebody of your age and I hope that you and your family will come to your collective senses and accept and acknowledge the damage that cannabis, particularly heavy cannabis use, does to

health and to mental health.  In your report it says that your memory faculties have already been affected by your heavy abuse of that drug.

[5]      Mr Sandston has made the point that the crime for which you are to be sentenced was not initiated by you and there is probably an element, the probation officer said, of you agreeing to obtain and supply the drug to try and impress your associate.  You have said that you felt nervous about the matter and were unsure of how you would in fact supply the drug.

[6]      Since then you have expressed willingness to address all of the issues and the problems that have led you to this sorry point today; where you find yourself in the dock for sentence on a serious offence.   It is a shame that you will now have a conviction on your record for that.  You must now work very hard to move on from here and reform yourself.

[7]      I accept that you are genuinely remorseful, that you are relatively naïve and that   you  were  in  terms  of  this  particular  offending;  and  that   you   lacked understanding of or did not think through the consequences of your offending.   I accept also that your motivation to change is currently high but you must realise that your risk of re-offending also remains high because of your dependence on drugs and alcohol.

[8]      The   probation   officer   has   recommended   a   non-custodial   sentence   of community work coupled with 12 months supervision and drug counselling.  That is supported by both counsel for the Crown as well as your own counsel.  Counsel have responsibly reached the same conclusion in submitting that an appropriate sentencing approach for you is one that gives you a chance to remain in the community and to reform and rehabilitate yourself.

[9]      Section 16(3) of the Sentencing Act 2002 contains a presumption against imprisonment and requires the Court to sentence an offender to the least restrictive outcome appropriate in the circumstances.  Applying the principle in that section I agree that the least restrictive approach in your case is a community based sentence of community work, coupled with supervision.  I note also your early guilty plea and

that is another factor that can be taken into account, along with your youth and your good response to the last community sentence that you served.   All of those are indicators that there is a great deal of hope for you and I do hope your life takes a healthier and more positive turn in the future.  I take into account also that no supply of the drug did take place.

[10]     I sentence you to 200 hours of community work together with 12 months supervision by a probation officer with a special condition to attend alcohol and drug counselling to the satisfaction of the counsellor and your probation officer.

[11]     You may stand down.

Solicitors:

Pitt & Moore, Nelson, for Crown

McFadden McMeeken Phillips, Nelson for Prisoner