No Criminal Record for Drug Supply of 18 ‘Ecstacy’ Tablets

Our client is a 22-year-old man from the United Kingdom who is on a student visa.
He is studying a Bachelor of Laws at the University of technology Sydney.
Throughout the night and into the early hours of the morning, Police had been conducting a drug dog operation in the Kings Cross area.
Police sighted our client. Ur client made eye contact with Police and then immediately turned around and began walking away.
They approached our client and asked if he consented to being searched, which he did.
In the course of the search, police located a resealable plastic bag containing 18 capsules of MDMA (‘ecstacy’) secreted in our client’s underwear.
Our client was arrested and cautioned. He made full and frank admissions to possessing the tablets. He also stated that he intended to share the capsules with his friends.
In NSW, sharing a prohibited drug with another person – even if you do not receive any payment for it – is considered supply.
As such, our client was charged with supplying a prohibited drug.
Our client had been to a number of other lawyers who had told him that he could not avoid a conviction.
We thought otherwise.
We immediately began preparing our client for sentencing.
He was provided with our tailored Apology Letter and Character Reference Guides. We also arranged for him to attend the SMART Recovery Program.
We obtained his Unite Kingdom criminal record (which was clean).
We also obtained his academic transcript as well as letters from lecturers and tutors at his University which confirmed the impact a criminal conviction would have on his career prospects would be devastating.
In Court we made lengthy oral submissions highlighting the strong subjective case we had prepared.
We also brought the Court’s attention to the decision of R v Mauger [2012] NSWCCA 51 which confirmed that despite the number of pills, a ‘non-conviction’ order was within range.
The Magistrate was persuaded not to impose a criminal record on our client and released him on a two-year good behaviour bond without conviction.
Our client was ecstatic and looks forward to pursuing his career in law.