STATE OF TASMANIA v ZACHARY DONALD SHERRIFF 2 APRIL 2025
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BRETT J
Mr Sherriff, you have pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in methylamphetamine. You have also pleaded guilty to a number of related summary offences, in particular possessing and using cannabis and methylamphetamine, possession of smoking devices related to the consumption of those drugs, and some firearms offences relating to your possession of a .410 shot gun, and ammunition capable of being used in that weapon. You have also pleaded guilty to the summary offence of contravening a family violence order by having possession of the shotgun and the ammunition.
The trafficking crime is constituted by your conduct of a business which involved the importation and sale of methylamphetamine between 1 January and 26 June 2024. According to your admissions to police, you started this activity by selling relatively small amounts to end users, but by the last two months of that period, you had developed the business to a level where you were importing significant quantities of the drug into Tasmania, and selling or at least offering to sell it in higher quantities, in particular, in half ounce and ounce amounts. You admitted to police that you had personally conducted three trips to Melbourne by yourself where you purchased an ounce of the drug from a supplier, and returned to Tasmania with it by commercial flight. On another occasion, you travelled there and returned aboard the Spirit of Tasmania. On that occasion, you were accompanied by your 4 year old son, and you purchased and returned with two ounces of methylamphetamine. When you had a falling out with your supplier in Melbourne, you arranged to buy the drugs in that city from someone else, and recruited a woman who owed you money to work off the debt by acting as a courier. You admitted to police that she had conducted two such journeys on your behalf, bringing an ounce of the drug into the State on each journey. However, evidence obtained from your telephone reveals that you arranged for her to conduct two other journeys, but there is no direct evidence of whether, and if so, how much methylamphetamine may have been imported on these journeys. I think that there is a strong inference that this was the purpose of those other journeys, and in any event, that evidence assists me to understand the scale of the trafficking business. It is clear that the courier carried the drugs covertly, on at least one occasion by hiding the drug packaged in condoms within her body. This is clear from the fact that when she was detained by police at the Launceston airport on 26 June 2024, which was her last journey on your behalf, she was taken to the Launceston General Hospital, where two clip lock bags containing an aggregate of 37 grams of methylamphetamine were removed from her body. I note that you were also arrested at the airport on that occasion, because you were there to collect her from the flight. Your arrest on that occasion brought your trafficking activity to an end.
Your admissions to police and evidence obtained from your telephone reveal that you secured at least 7 ounces of the drug by importation. You purchased at least another ounce from a local supplier. It follows that you trafficked in a minimum of 8 ounces over the period of the indictment, although the actual amount may have been in excess of this because of the extra journeys undertaken on your behalf by the courier. The quantity of 8 ounces is estimated to have an aggregate street value of $226,000 if sold by the point and $64,571 if sold in bulk quantities valued at $500 each.
After your arrest at the airport, police searched your residence. They found the firearm and ammunition, smoking devices and other drug paraphernalia. According to a ballistics expert, the firearm was in working order, the barrel had been shortened and the serial number ground off to the point of obliteration. You told police that you obtained the firearm for protection. I infer that this purpose is directly connected to your operation of the drug trafficking business. The weapon was found in a cupboard in the main bedroom, where it was obviously kept by you. The ammunition consisted of two shotgun cartridges of the same calibre, which were sitting beside the gun in the cupboard. They were clearly capable of being loaded into and fired by the weapon within a short time, if you so decided.
You told police that you were a heavy user of methylamphetamine during your conduct of the business, and the prosecution accepts this. You were undoubtedly using some of the drug yourself, but it is clear that you were also selling a substantial portion of it. You had apparently taken out a bank loan to fund your initial purchase of the drug, and after that, I accept that the profits were being used to keep the business going, both by purchasing further quantities, and funding the trips to Melbourne. There is no evidence presented to me that you acquired any significant assets as a result of this crime.
You are 25 years of age, and live with your partner and five-year-old son. You have another child, a two-year-old daughter, who lives with her mother. Her mother is the protected person under the family violence order. You are in secure and stable full-time employment as a retail assistant. I have been provided with a reference from your employer, who speaks well of you. I am told that you had a difficult upbringing. You started to use methylamphetamine at 14 years of age and quickly became addicted. This description of your background, and in particular the history of your use of illicit substances, is generally consistent with your criminal history. The record shows that your first offence, for which you received a formal caution was committed when you were 11 years of age and there are more offences committed from the age of 14 onwards. These are largely driving offences, and this pattern continued until 2018 when you were 19 years of age. During that year, you were convicted for various offences associated with drugs, including driving a motor vehicle while an illicit drug was present in your blood, and a variety of minor drug offences, one of which included selling a controlled plant. I infer that this was cannabis. Your poor driving record has continued and you have received two suspended sentences for such offences. On 3 August 2022, you were sentenced to a community corrections order for some family violence and minor drug offences. You were also sentenced to 3 months suspended imprisonment for another drug driving offence. The period of suspension was 18 months, which expired on 3 February 2024, just after you commenced the drug trafficking. The prosecution has made an application to have you dealt with for the breach of this suspended sentence. In the circumstances, I agree with your counsel that it would be unjust to activate this sentence and I do not intend to do so. As I will explain, the real problem with the trafficking crime is what occurred in May and June, after you significantly increased the scope of the crime by importing drugs from the mainland. The commencement of the indictment period is only just over a week before the expiry of the suspended sentence and, at that stage, your trafficking was at a relatively low level. I will not activate the suspended sentence.
However, in my view, the way that the trafficking business developed, particularly in the last two months, makes this an extremely serious example of the crime of trafficking. You were importing and selling significant quantities of methylamphetamine. I regard the importation of methylamphetamine into Tasmania as a factor which significantly aggravates the objective seriousness of the crime of trafficking. This activity increased the availability of an extremely harmful and addictive substance in the Tasmanian community, and demonstrates the commercial nature and intent of your operation. Further, you took advantage of a person who owed you money, by recruiting her as a drug courier. The trafficking also progressed from selling very small amounts at the start to selling drugs in sufficient quantities to permit on sale to others. I am also concerned about your possession of the firearm and its unsafe storage in a cupboard in your house, beside ammunition suitable for use in it. It is recognised that the presence of firearms among drug paraphernalia located in association with a trafficking business can constitute an aggravating factor. I regard your possession and storage of the firearm as such.
Your counsel says that you are remorseful. She also relies on your early plea of guilty, which was in fact entered on your first appearance in the Magistrates Court on these charges. I am told that you have worked hard on rehabilitation, including attending courses designed to overcome the concerns of child safety services in respect of the removal of your child. I am told that the child has now been returned into your care on a part-time basis. You have been subjected to tests by child safety to ensure you are no longer using drugs. Finally, your counsel tells me that you will, if asked, give evidence against the courier, who has been charged with trafficking and committed for trial. However, the prosecutor was not able to confirm that you will be asked to do this if the case against her proceeds to trial. I would think that there must be a reasonable possibility that it will not, given that she was apprehended red-handed carrying drugs in her body into Tasmania on a commercial flight. I will take your stated willingness into account in a general way, particularly as evidence of your remorse, but I do not intend to specify a specific discount for such cooperation. I think that the possibility of your evidence being required is simply too speculative to justify that course.
In my view, given the objective seriousness of your criminal conduct, general deterrence is the primary sentencing consideration in this case. I accept that your efforts to rehabilitate yourself and your cooperation with the administration of justice by way of your early plea of guilty, also deserve some weight, but the fact that you chose to operate a commercial business which involved the regular importation of significant quantities of this dangerous drug into Tasmania, and its subsequent sale, means that severe punishment is inevitable. Drug trafficking of this nature causes great harm to the Tasmanian community. Courts will not tolerate such conduct and those minded to act in a similar way must understand that the consequences will be severe. The only appropriate sentence is a significant sentence of imprisonment. Having said that, I think that the sentence should be reduced to reflect the utilitarian benefit of the entry of a plea of guilty at the first available opportunity.
Accordingly, the orders I make are these:
- You are convicted of the crime and the offences to which you have pleaded guilty;
- You are sentenced to a global term of 3 years’ imprisonment, which will commence immediately. Were it not for your early plea of guilty and cooperation with the authorities, I would have imposed a global sentence of 4 years’ imprisonment. This represents a sentencing discount of approximately 25 percent to take account of these matters. Further, having regard to your age, and efforts to rehabilitate, I will permit the possibility of parole at the earliest opportunity. Accordingly, I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served one half of the sentence, which is a period of 18 months.
- Pursuant to s 38 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, I order that the smoking devices and digital scales seized by police be forfeited to the Crown.
- Finally, pursuant to s 13A of the Family Violence Act, I direct that count 13 on complaint 33366/24 be recorded on your criminal record as a family violence offence.