STATE OF TASMANIA v ONECK WALTER FRANCIS 28 NOVEMBER 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE MARTIN AJ
Mr Francis you have pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance, namely, methylamphetamine and cocaine. Your trafficking occurred 3 November 2023 when you brought both of those drugs into Tasmania.
You were aged 26 at the time and you had been in Australia since 2008 when you arrived as a refugee from Sudan. You were educated in Tasmania, and you regard Tasmania as your home although between 2021 and 2023 you spent time in Queensland where your sister lives.
Through your counsel today, you have told me that you were living in the home of a school friend who was helping you out because of your poor financial position. That friend approached you between July and October 2023 and asked you to do him a favour by travelling interstate and driving a vehicle for which you would be paid $5,000. Other than that you had no knowledge of what the job was, and following instructions you downloaded an encrypted app.
Your counsel put to me today that it did not occur to you that drugs would be involved. You are not a drug user and there were no drugs in the house. I am unable to accept that proposition as any matter of mitigation. I do not know what you thought, and I am certainly not satisfied that you realised drugs would be involved. But I do not accept on the balance of probabilities that it did not occur to you that something illegal was going on.
You were being offered $5,000 to follow instructions on an encrypted app, to fly to Melbourne on a ticket provided by others, drive to Sydney, pick up packages and drive back to Melbourne and into Tasmania. I am in a position that I simply do not know what occurred to you when you were thinking about this job.
According to your statement to police, you collected the hire car from the airport, drove to Sydney, collected two bags, drove back to Melbourne and it was only after you passed through the screening process that you looked in the bags and realised drugs were involved. Again, I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities as a matter of mitigation that you did not realise drugs were involved until that very late stage. I do not know when you looked in the bags.
When you disembarked on 3 November in Devonport, the vehicle you were driving was screened by a drug detection dog and a positive indication was produced. You denied at that time before any search was conducted that there were drugs in the vehicle and claimed that the drug dogs reaction occurred because you had consumed cannabis the previous evening.
A search of the vehicle located two sports bags in the boot. You told the police that the black bag belonged to your friend who lived in Melbourne and a Culture Kings bag was yours. Inside the black bag was a quantity of new clothing sitting on top. Inside a hoodie, police found a black cryovac package and beneath that, concealed in the legs of a pair of trackpants were another two identical packages. There were three black cryovac packages inside the black bag.
Inside the Culture Kings bag, police found a black sports bag with more new clothing. Concealed within a top was a black and white cyovac package. Underneath was a hoodie where police found another black and white cryovac package and fourth black package identical to those located in the first bag.
There were four black packages, each of which were packaged in the same way and contained three layers of cryovac plastic bags, with the last layer containing methylamphetamine. In those packages there was a total of 4,044.78 grams of methylamphetamine. In the two black and white cryovac packages, was a total of 2,039.58 grams of cocaine. There was a total of 6,084.36 grams of controlled substance in your vehicle.
Initially when police spoke to you, there were no admissions, rather you denied knowing anything about what was in the bags. However, later in the interview you admitted being approached by someone to do a job which were told was risky but which would result in quick money. You were $20,000 in debt at the time and financially supporting your family in Africa. You told police you flew to Melbourne where you collected the car and downloaded the encrypted app so you could communicate with the people you were working for. According to your statement to the police, you drove to Sydney and collected the bags, but looked in the bags when it was too close to the departing time of the boat to do anything about it. You were to be paid $5,000 but you did not ever receive any money.
In the Crown facts, it is accepted that you imported the substances into Tasmania with the belief that someone else intended to sell them. Depending on how the drugs were sold, the street value of the methylamphetamine was between a little over $2m and a little over $4m. Again, depending on how the cocaine was sold, the street value was between a little over $611,000 and a little over $1m. The combined value of the drugs was between a little over $2.6m and a little over $5m.
It has been said repeatedly, that these drugs cause enormous harm throughout our community. Those who operate these drug enterprises rely on people like you being prepared to take a risk and become involved by transporting drugs. People like you play an integral and important role in these illegal drug businesses and in this way you contribute to the harm caused to our community.
Apart from minor traffic offences you have not been in trouble with the law previously. I accept that you have suffered over the years from depression and you have difficulties in your life because of mental health issues, financial difficulties and rejections when you seek to obtain work. It is in this context that you agreed to undertake this exercise and be paid, you hoped, $5,000. You have accepted responsibility through your plea of guilty, although it must be said that you faced an exceptionally strong case.
You have been in custody since 3 November 2023. After allowing for your plea of guilty, I impose a sentence of two years and three months imprisonment, commencing 3 November 2023 and I fix a non-parole period of one year and six months, which means that in approximately six months time you will be eligible for parole. Whether the Parole Board sees fit to grant you parole is a matter entirely for the Parole Board. You are convicted.