Ashleigh Bennett convicted after supplying MDMA at Epik Music Festival
A young woman with aspirations of becoming a nurse smuggled more than 30 caps of MDMA into the Epik Music Festival, only to be confronted on the dancefloor by police officers.
Central Coast
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The daughter of a NSW Corrective Services officer has been convicted and dodged jail time after supplying 35 MDMA caps at a Sydney festival after her defence requested a conviction not be recorded because she aspired to be a nurse, the court heard.
Ashleigh Bennett, 20, from the Central Coast, dabbed her eyes with tissues as she fronted court for her sentence at Burwood Local Court on Thursday.
Bennett had been arrested at Epik music festival at The Dome in Sydney Olympic Park last December.
The Berkeley Vale woman was on the main floor when she was approached by officers at about 11.30pm on December 14 and “started shaking,” according to police facts.
She was escorted from the main floor and was told police would conduct a search before she told them she had drugs in her bag but would not specify how much.
In a search, police found 35 caps of MDMA (8.46g) and $260 cash in the university student’s handbag from selling the drugs.
The Central Coast woman was initially charged with supplying a prohibited drug of an indictable quantity, possessing a prohibited drug, dealing with property proceeds of crime and having goods in personal custody suspected of being stolen.
All charges were dropped except for the one drug supply charge which she pleaded guilty to and carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail.
In court, police prosecutor Sgt Rob Hough told the court the object of sentencing should act as a“general deterrent” to supplying drugs at future music festivals.
The court heard Bennett was studying to become a nurse and would have to be a “fit and proper person” whose criminal history will be taken into account when registering.
Yet Magistrate Lisa Stapleton told the court the “whole point” about assessing a person’s criminal history was because a nurse held a position of trust and that included access to drugs.
“It must be a matter for any professional registration body that a person had a demonstrated history in relation to either the possession or supply of drugs,” Ms Stapleton told the court.
In his submission Bennett’s lawyer Mr Edwards made a point about extra-curial punishment after tendering two affidavits, from Bennett and her father saying the matter was well-reported in the media.
Yet the magistrate hit back saying media reporting was “an ordinary consequence of a person being brought before the court.”
Yet Ms Stapleton said she accepted the offender had been subject to online harassment and intimidation outlined in her affidavit and accepted it as a form of extra-curial punishment.
In her sentencing, the magistrate told the court Bennett had 35 capsules which could be described as “35 individual experiences” of the use of the drug.
“It is not in that sense a small number of capsules…. It falls somewhere between serious and very serious,” she said.
The court heard Bennett was previously given a non conviction bond for a 12-month period for drug possession.
In sentencing, the magistrate took into account she was a “young adult” being 19 at the time of the offence.
Bennett was convicted and sentenced to a two-year community correction order (CCO) with a strict curfew of not leaving her home between 9pm and 6am for the first eight months, unless for the purpose of attending employment or university.
Further conditions included not being in company with Kaddison O’Shea and to abstain from drugs unless they were prescribed by a doctor during her CCO.