Murray Torcetti Lawyers are criminal lawyers in Caboolture. We write our own case notes from recent criminal decisions for internal purposes.
However, unlike your annoying sibling, we don’t mind sharing.
Facts: The applicant was apprehended with a large amount of cocaine returning from Buenos Aires. After a trial, the applicant was convicted of importing a marketable quantity of cocaine, 400g with the street value of over half a million dollars. The applicant gave a version that she was to bring the substance back for approximately $10,000 and an upgrade from her economy flight. Her fingerprints were located on the packaging and materials such as fingerprints on the sticky side of the tape in which the bags were wrapped.
She was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of five years and six months. The appeal was on the grounds of it being manifestly excessive, and the sentencing judge erred in sentencing the applicant on the basis that she was more than a courier and on the basis she proceeded to trial in the face of a strong Crown case.
The applicant was 55 at the time of the offending and 57 at sentencing, letter of reference was tendered at the sentence. The court noted, “Because the applicant denied guilt and offered no explanations for her actions, after she was found guilty her counsel was handicapped in his ability to make submissions in mitigation”. Other than a minimal and the relevant criminal history, counsel had been left with little to mitigate the sentence with.
The judge was correct in not finding the applicant was “more than a courier” but also not prepared to find the applicant was a “mere courier”.
Finding: Appeal dismissed. The sentence was within sound sentencing discretion. It was at the higher end, but not beyond the bounds of a proper exercise of discretion.
Notes for practice:
- The Court reviewed comparable cases.
- After a trial, personal deterrence is a live factor. “Contrition is some evidence of insight and this insight into wrongfulness of a crime implies a reduced likelihood of offending.”
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