Our client was a young man charged with six serious drug dealing offences, the most serious of which we were successfully in negotiating with the prosecution to half the weight originally alleged in his possession to below 4grams, thereby enabling all charges to be dealt with in the Magistrates Court.
Despite the starting point for any Court in dealing with offences of this type being a term of imprisonment, we were able to persuade the Court to impose fines, and our application for spent convictions was granted. Notwithstanding our client’s personal difficulties which lead him to exercise poor judgement, he had shown marked maturity and acceptance of responsibility by the time he came to be sentenced, by engaging in private counselling and completing his electrical apprenticeship with a goal to work in the mining industry. The Court was persuaded that he was unlikely to offend again and that his and the community’s interests would be best served by a sentence other than imprisonment.
