Sydney festivals: MDMA dealer walks free after arguing months in prison too harsh
A man busted dealing MDMA at a Sydney music festival has had his sentence reduced on appeal, and he says he is “ashamed” of his actions.
Police & Courts
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A man caught with almost 100 MDMA caps at a Sydney music festival has walked free after winning an appeal against a “severe” sentence that would have seen him serve at most one year in prison.
Kyohyeon “Daniel” Choi was caught dealing drugs at the Summer Gatherings festival at Sydney Olympic Park in January this year.
It was just before 8pm when police watched Choi speaking with a woman at a picnic table, court documents say.
She handed him some cash and he passed her something from his lap beneath the table.
Cops swooped on the pair and seized four caps of MDMA from the woman.
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Choi told police he was sorry as they pulled out a resealable bag with 57 caps and $100 in cash out of his Adidas hat.
He told them he had more MDMA in his bum bag - all up Choi was found with 97 caps, comprising 11 grams of the drug, and $1205.
But the court documents show police, reading through his text messages later, calculated he had walked in with closer to 150 caps and sold a third off.
Police concluded Choi was buying in bulk, the documents say, and dealing to his friends in order to cover his own festival ticket, drinks and drugs.
The 27-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of indictable drug supply at Burwood Local Court in June and was facing a maximum of two years in prison.
If those same charges had gone before the District Court, Choi would have faced a maximum 15 years for the amount of drugs he was carrying.
Instead he was sentenced, in August, to 12 months in prison with seven months non parole for two counts of drug supply.
His high-profile defence lawyer, Abbas Soukie, appealed saying the sentence was “too severe”.
The NSW District Court, on Tuesday, agreed and ordered Choi serve the year of prison time in the community and complete 250 hours of community service.
He told The Daily Telegraph that Choi was pleased to serve the time under an intensive corrections order.
“Ultimately, the Court accepted the defence submissions that Mr Choi had good prospects of rehabilitation, was genuinely remorseful and had taken active steps since his release to bail to immerse himself in rehabilitation,” Mr Soukie said.
“He looks forward to moving on with his life and is committed to being a prosocial and contributing member of society”.
A report says Choi lived in South Korea until age 14 and, after moving to Australia, struggled in school and had a strained relationship with his parents before becoming homeless.
In a letter to the court he said he now understood the consequences of drug dealing and was “ashamed” of his actions.