Notorious drug trafficker Steven Joseph Jacques asks High Court to quash his latest sentence

Recidivist methamphetamine trafficker Steven Jacques has asked the High Court to quash a decision by three SA judges that increased his prison term fivefold.

One of SA’s most notorious methamphetamine traffickers has asked the High Court to quash a ruling by the state’s highest court that dramatically increased his latest prison sentence.

In an unusual move, top-flight barristers acting for recidivist trafficker Steven Joseph Jacques want the High Court to throw out a Court of Appeal decision that increased his non-parole period more than fivefold – from nine months to four years.

They contend the three appeal court justices should have dismissed the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions appeal because the original sentence was not “manifestly inadequate’’ considering his circumstances and rehabilitation following his arrest.

The application for special leave to appeal, prepared by barristers Marie Shaw QC and Stephen McDonald SC, lists two grounds of appeal – that the appeal court erred in finding the original sentence was manifestly inadequate and it failed to consider the exercise of “residual discretion’’ to dismiss the appeal.

The application states there were “strong factors in favour of dismissing the appeal’’ and the consequence of the decision “is extremely severe’’ for Jacques, who now faced being in custody until May 2025. He could potentially have been released next month under his original sentence.

Steven Joseph Jacques outside the Adelaide Magistrates Court.

“The sentencing judge regarded it as a ‘tragedy’ that the applicant’s offending would mean a separation from the stable family life he had built for himself in the time since his offending,’’ the application states.

“To allow the appeal – and to extend the non-parole period by more than three years (from starting point of nine months) – was to compound that tragedy.

“The limiting purpose of the Crown appeal could still have been achieved by the court offering guidance as to the sentences that ought to have been imposed, yet exercising the residual discretion to dismiss the appeal.

“The court failed even to allude to the existence of that discretion, let alone to consider its exercise, or properly to exercise it.’’

Jacques, who pleaded guilty to charges including trafficking almost 100 grams of pure methamphetamine and money laundering involving $132,000, was originally sentenced to three years and one month in prison with a non-parole period of nine months.

The Court of Appeal, comprising Chief Justice Chris Kourakis and justices David Lovell and Chris Bleby, resentenced him to six years and nine months in prison with a non-parole period of four years.

A massive cache of methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy worth $90 million was discovered buried in the Adelaide Hills in 2013. Picture: SA Police

The court found both the sentence and non-parole period were so low “as to shock the public conscience’’ and the circumstances of his offending and criminal history required a sentence that gave sufficient emphasis “to the seriousness of the offences’’.

Jacques, 35, is a significant player in a drug syndicate closely linked to a bikie gang. In 2013, he and Bradley Scott Sanderson were charged over a $7m haul of methamphetamine found buried in scrubland at Inglewood, in the Adelaide Hills. Both later pleaded guilty.

That discovery prompted police to launch a covert operation, dubbed Divulge, that resulted in the discovery of $90m worth of drugs, including methamphetamine, ecstasy and cocaine, buried in the same region.

Jacques was arrested for his latest offending as part of a major Australian Federal Police operation – dubbed Jarmo – that had been targeting the syndicate for two years. It resulted in the seizure of large amounts of methamphetamines and $1m in cash.