NSW Charged for Possession of Ice Under Criminal Law - What to Do?

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22 January 2016
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I was on section ten bond, and I got charged with possession of ice under Criminal Law. I went to court and I was given section 9 with probation period with supervision for a year plus, as well as anger management and education development and family relationship counselling for as long as necessary.

Isn't it too harsh and should I appeal the matter? What should I do?
 

Tim W

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As penalties go, that's on the lighter side.

You should accept this penalty.
You should do the anger management and other things the court requires you to do.
And you should do whatever it takes to get off ice.
 
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Serge Gorval

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I disagree with Tim. Section 9 bond for simple possession seems harsh.

Give me some subjectives:

1. age
2. quantity of drugs.
3. circumstances
4. your antecedents ( priors? any other than s10 bond)?

Which court/magistrate did the plea?

You have 28 days to lodge a severity appeal.
 

Tim W

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Tim W

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Serge

Although I am not an Admin here,
please allow me to invite your attention to the Community Guidelines,
in particular, the prohibition on soliciting new clients.
 

TKC

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12 January 2016
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Sit in the lower court of the Downing Centre in Central Sydney for a half-a-day or so and the most prominent thing which will come to your attention is the stock reasoning used in a magistrate's verdict on matters to do with ice, which sounds something like -- the corrosive nature of ice to the community demands that I impose a severe sentence in this instance and therefore...

I don't necessarily think it's a light sentence but the magistrates are certainly not being light on ice-related guilty verdicts. There's not much to lose to make a severity appeal to vary the sentence since if the judge was to consider an increase the judge would be required to provide a warning of a “Parker direction”, however, it's not all win-win as appeals to a higher court are often even more stressful situations and prolong the whole matter for up to another three months, for what could be a lost cause.

 

Tim W

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I disagree with Tim. Section 9 bond for simple possession seems harsh.
If the OP was a first time offender, and otherwise a cleanskin,
then maybe.
But it seems that the OP is not a cleanskin - he has self-stated that he's already had a section 10 bond.
And that he breached it by committing this second offence during the bond period.

So, the OP's karmic credit is all used up.
And, given that the Local Court seems to be being... especially meticulous..... of late
in the application of the Principles of Sentencing (especially denunciation!),
I'd say that a section 9 is both an inevitable and commendably minimalist*, increment of penalty.
 

Serge Gorval

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So, the OP's karmic credit is all used up.
And, given that the Local Court seems to be being... especially meticulous..... of late

Sorry, Tim I completely forgot that magistrates obviously decide which sentence to impose based of course on the amount of "Karma credit" one has.

OP, you should lodge a severity appeal. If all you had was a s10 bond, and if no action was taken on it for the new charge you should challenge the bond. I find that dizzo judges are more reasonable when considering low-level criminal conduct as they usually aren't looking to make an example out of anyone before a packed courtroom on the 9.30 list.

As the previous poster said, you really have nothing to lose.