Townsville woman bids for lighter sentence in Court of Appeal after $100k coke jail sentence
A woman whose coke operation was foiled when Australian Border Force found ‘trainers, shoes’ labelled packages with drugs in them has fought to lower her jail sentence.
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A drug supplier whose $100,000 coke operation was intercepted by Australian Border Force when they found packages in the mail has argued her jail sentence was “excessive” in a Court of Appeal application.
The woman can’t be identified as the application outlined trauma she suffered from domestic violence and she will be referred to as SEP.
The woman, who was 19 at the time of offending, was sentenced to three years jail and given parole after serving 11 months.
She was found guilty by a jury of supplying cocaine but had pleaded guilty to seven other charges, including the supply and possession of marijuana.
On November 24, 2022 Australian Border Force intercepted two packages that arrived in Sydney and addressed to the woman’s brother in Annandale and another man in Kirwan.
“Each package was marked as having been sent by the same person from the same address in the United Kingdom,” the appeal outlined.
“Each was labelled as containing ‘trainers, shoes’. When opened, each package was found to contain a pair of shoes and a substantial quantity of cocaine.”
The woman and her brother were charged with supplying cocaine in relation to the package addressed to his Annandale house.
“It had a total gross weight of 286.625g and a pure weight of 211.915g,” the appeal outlined.
“This was a substantial, inherently commercial quantity. Even if its gross weight was not increased by use of a cutting agent, it was worth approximately $100,000 if sold in gram amounts.”
Months later a search warrant was executed at the woman’s home where police found a bag with 420g of marijuana and in her phone, messages of her supplying to others, which accounted for the charges she pleaded guilty to.
It was proved in the trial that that SEP was the person who put her brother’s address as the delivery address to the overseas drug supplier and she was the one communicating with said supplier.
“I had no money, I had no job”
“The messages also showed (she) had an expectation of being paid for facilitating the sending of the cocaine to her brother’s address,” the appeal said.
When she spoke to a psychologist before the trial, she told him she knew what she was doing was “dodgy”.
“She said, ‘I had no money. I had no job, and I was offered $1000 so I figured, why not’.”
The woman’s lawyers argued the three year jail sentence was “manifestly excessive” and there were significant mitigating considerations such as her young age, lack of criminal history and coming from a “dysfunctional, traumatic upbringing”.
“When she was six years old her father brought her to Australia from the Philippines based mother, who was a prostitute and drug addict,” the Appeal said.
The application also said her father had abused her, as well as a boyfriend’s father who was convicted and jailed for the abuse.
Additionally, the sentencing judge had to consider the penalties for her brother who was sentenced to two and a half years jail with a parole release after serving nine months.
The appeal stated he received a lesser sentence due to his lesser role in the supply charge.
“The argument must be rejected,” the appeal said.
“… the head sentence… fell towards, albeit not at, the lower end of the appropriate range of sentence for involvement in this level of criminality.”
The application was refused.
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Originally published as Townsville woman bids for lighter sentence in Court of Appeal after $100k coke jail sentence