Jarrod Wood-Bennett avoids jail time after BASSINTHEGRASS drug bust

A man caught with ‘minuscule quantities’ of cannabis and cocaine has been spared prison time after missing a performance by Territory singing sensation Jess Mauboy at BASSINTHEGRASS.

Jarrod Wood-Bennett didn’t get to see Jessica Mauboy perform her hits ‘Pop a Bottle (Fill Me Up)’, ‘Never Be the Same’ and ‘Can I Get a Moment?’ after being caught with drugs at this year’s BASSINTHEGRASS music festival.

A man busted with “minuscule quantities” of drugs on his way to BASSINTHEGRASS has avoided a mandatory jail term, partly due to the “extra-curial punishment” of missing out on seeing Territory singing sensation Jessica Mauboy perform live.

Jarrod Rowan Wood-Bennett pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court to possessing less than a trafficable quantity of cocaine and cannabis after being sniffed out by a drug detection dog as he tried to enter the festival in May.

In handing Wood-Bennett a $500 fine, judge Ben O’Loughlin said the 3g of cannabis and 0.07g of cocaine the police found “doesn’t sound like much at all”.

Defence lawyer Jackson Meaney told the court the small amount of cocaine was “residual powder left on a bag that was essentially empty”.

“It’s Mr Wood-Bennett walking into BASSINTHEGRASS with two bags containing extraordinarily small quantities of prohibited drugs, 0.07g is towards the absolute lowest end of the range for this type of offending and 3g is also a small amount,” he said.

“Mr Wood-Bennett had been using recreational drugs at a friend’s place before going to BASSINTHEGRASS, he forgot that he had these bags in his pocket, they walked through the front gate and he’s been picked up by a drug detection dog.”

Montaigne was just one of the many wonderful acts Jarrod Wood-Bennett missed out on after he got high and forgot he had drugs in his pocket. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

Mr Meaney said Wood-Bennett was then booted out of the festival, where Mauboy was due to perform alongside Hilltop Hoods and Peking Duk, which was “a form of extra-curial punishment”.

“Mr Wood-Bennett is someone with significant connections to the Darwin community, he is a qualified plasterer and renderer … and your honour sees from the letter provided by his employer … that he is someone who is working hard,” he said.

“Given his strong connections to the community, his current employment, this court can have significant confidence that he has excellent prospects of rehabilitation and the need for specific and general deterrence in this case is minimal.”

In electing not to send Wood-Bennett to jail over the “minuscule quantities” of drugs, Mr O’Loughlin said the situation met the definition of “particular circumstances” in the mandatory sentencing legislation and a fine was “adequate”.

“Getting ready for BASSINTHEGRASS and then getting caught in this way and not being able to see the concert would have been an extra-curial punishment in itself,” he said.