STATE OF TASMANIA v KAYLENE RUTH HOWLETT 26 SEPTEMBER 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Kaylene Howlett, you plead guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance. You are jointly charged with your son and his girlfriend with trafficking in methylamphetamine and MDMA, but as far as the indictment concerns you it is confined to a particular instance of possession of methylamphetamine. At about 3.00 pm on 24 May 2023 you drove from your home in Pontville to your son’s girlfriend’s home in Gagebrook. There you collected two snap lock bags of methylamphetamine, one 5.0 grams and the other 22.6 grams. You concealed them beside the driver’s seat and left, intending to a house in Claremont. You had been asked to deliver the drug by your son. The police had notice of the proposed delivery from messages on a phone they had seized from another man.
When you were interviewed by the police you admitted that you had delivered and collected drugs on other occasions. You knew that your son and his girlfriend were involved in the sale of illicit drugs, and that was what you were asked to deliver although you did not know which drug or the precise quantity. The methylamphetamine you had on 24 May 2023 was worth, depending on the quantities in which it was sold, between about $7,000 and $28,000. You were trafficking in methylamphetamine because you transported the drug in the belief that your son had sold or intended to sell them. In return for this and other deliveries you were not paid but they sometimes put petrol in your car and deposited money in your TAB account.
You are now aged 61. Your only record is for traffic offences. You are now retired after an admirable history of employment as an enrolled nurse in the disability and aged care sectors. You have a number of health conditions which would make prison more difficult for you.
The evils of the trade in illicit drugs are known and understood by every responsible citizen. Methylamphetamine in particular causes much harm. It is highly damaging to the health of users and its use and trade commonly lead to crimes of violence and dishonesty. Traffickers, especially those motivated by financial gain, should expect harsh punishment. I accept your role was limited. You acted at the direction of your son, and probably from a sense of loyalty to him. In a sense you were taken advantage of as well. He asked you to take a risk of detection he was not prepared to take himself. But without persons who are willing to act as couriers, the trade would be more difficult. You are to be sentenced only for what was in your possession on 24 May 2023 but it is to be considered in the context that it was not an isolated occasion. A sentence of imprisonment is required but I will allow you the opportunity to avoid having to serve any part of it by wholly suspending it. Part of the reason for that sentence is an incentive for you to not offend again. The law imposes a condition on the suspended sentence that, while it is in force, you do not commit another offence punishable by imprisonment. You should clearly understand that, if you breach that condition by committing any such offence, whether involved in drugs of not, you will be required to serve the term of imprisonment I am about to impose unless that is unjust.
Kaylene Howlett, you are convicted on the indictment. You are sentenced to imprisonment for four months, wholly suspended for 18 months from today. I order that you pay the cost of the analysis of the illicit substance in the sum of $7,683.00 and that you pay that sum as part of the costs of the prosecutor. I can only allow you 28 days to pay that sum but you may enter into a repayment arrangement.