Ex-Bronco Jamil Hopoate can’t be convicted over being caught with fake cocaine, court hears

Dumped NRL player Jamil Hopoate can’t be convicted of a drug supply charge because he was caught throwing away a bag of fake cocaine and not the real thing, a court has been told.

Dumped NRL player Jamil Hopoate can’t be convicted of a drug supply charge because he was caught throwing away a bag of fake cocaine that police had secretly planted and not the real thing, a court has been told.

The son of former footy bad boy John Hopoate applied for bail in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday after police allegedly caught him accessing a van linked to a massive 514kg haul of cocaine at Port Botany in May.

It is alleged Hopoate, 26, of Dee Why, then led police on a brazen daylight pursuit in a car with a woman before being arrested on foot and charged with commercial drug supply.

Jamil Hopoate trains with the Broncos in 2020.

Authorities had earlier been tipped off about the shipment and had substituted some of the actual cocaine with an inert substance before Hopoate was arrested.

Defence barrister Greg James, SC, focused on this during the hearing and argued the supply case against Hopoate wasn’t strong because his client had thrown away a bag containing eight 1kg slabs of the inert substance instead of any illegal drugs.

Justice Elizabeth Fullerton asked Mr James: “You say he cannot, on the supply charge, be liable at law where the circumstances are, as far as I know, (there was) no drug left in the blocks, it was all soap?” to which Mr James replied: “That’s right”.

Hopoate being arrested by police.

The judge then addressed the prosecution and said: “The strength of the Crown case, prima facie at least, might lose all force if the facts are … that there was nothing left in the blocks that would render him criminally liable for having them whether he was going to eat them, sell them or tip them in the river, that’s a concern is it not?”

But, after a 15-minute adjournment, Justice Fullerton said the Crown only has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that what Hopoate intentionally took was what he believed was cocaine and that he intended to supply it by handing it over to someone else other than the owner.

Mr James argued the law did not extend that far.

“There was a submission that the offence could be made out in some way if he had a belief that what he was taking was cocaine, our primary position is that the drugs misuse and trafficking act does not extend that far,” he said.

Justice Fullerton said it was a live question and adjourned the matter until Friday.

Meanwhile, on the same day of his bail application, Hopoate was listed to be sentenced over a raft of other charges including domestic violence offences in Port Macquarie Local Court.

He previously had pleaded guilty to two charges of common assault over allegations he struck his partner Shae Beathe in the carpark of the Club Panthers licensed venue in Port Macquarie on December 28, 2020.

Hopoate was booted out for spitting on security after he and Beathe, who is the mother of his toddler, had become embroiled in an argument.

But those matters were adjourned for sentencing on July 15 at Sydney’s Central Local Court.

Hopoate, who is the younger brother of Bulldogs player Will, made his NRL debut in March last year and played 12 games for the Broncos as a lock and second-rower before being released by the club at the end of the season.

He failed to land a new deal and the incident with Ms Beathe was said to have caused him to lose any chance he had of signing with a Sydney-based club.