Bail Granted for Commercial Drug Supply charges, while co-accuseds remain in jail

Our client is a 22-year old man who immigrated to Australia from Vietnam.
He, along with 2 other people, was charged with Supplying a Commercial Quantity of a Prohibited Drug.
Police had been granted surveillance warrants for our client’s phone as well as the phones of the co-accuseds.
The Police Facts indicated that there were messages consistent with drug supply on all three phones. Police had also been following all three accuseds and alleged that they had witnessed a drug transaction.
Our client’s family called us distraught with little information about what had occurred.
We immediately got to work by contacting Police to determine what our client had been charged with and where he was being held.
We were advised that the client was being held at Surry Hills Police Station and would be brought before Central Local Court the next morning.
We obtained the Facts Sheet from the Police and began preparing to make a bail application.
We obtained medical documents as to the hardship our client would suffer in custody. We also were able to prepare a number of letters from people who could ensure that our client complied with any bail conditions.
The prosecution strenuously opposed bail, arguing that a term of imprisonment was inevitable and that the prosecution case was ‘air-tight’. They also argued that our client was a flight risk due to the fact that he was not an Australian citizen.
In our submissions, we systematically broke down each of the prosecutions’ arguments.
First, we argued that the case against our client was ‘circumstantial’. This meant that the prosecution would have to rebut every reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence beyond reasonable doubt (see: The Queen v Baden-Clay (2016) 258 CLR 308).
We then handed up decisions of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal which confirmed that even if our client was found guilty, a term of imprisonment could be avoided.
Finally, we tendered the medical material and letters which confirmed that our client had strong family and community ties in Australia.
Ultimately, the magistrate granted our client bail. In doing so, he specifically commented on the thoroughness of preparation and persuasiveness of our submissions.
Our client is currently living with family in Australia as we prepare for the Trial.
The co-accuseds have remained in custody for the past 18 months awaiting Trial.