An Army veteran whom dropped 0.4 gram cocaine at his local bottle-o last Friday has appeared before Darwin local court this morning, pleading guilty to 'possessing schedule 1 less than a trafficable quantity'.
The luckless fisho's defence barrister Peter Maley described the matter as "highly unusual circumstances".
"Your honour, he's 28 years of age. He was born in Katoomba, NSW. He joined the Australian Defence Force. Spent four and half years in the Army.
"Your honour, he did purchase a small amount of cocaine that weekend."
"So he's gone the bottle-o, and in the course of obtaining his alcohol, a clipsal bag with an almost de-minimus [insignificant] amount of cocaine dropped out. He didn't notice it.
"He's gone about his business. An hour of so later, an off-duty officer saw the clipsal bag with a white substance in it.
"Questioned the staff. Then of course, activated an investigation, and police attended. They got the CCTV footage and ultimately tracked my client's vehicle and him down.
"They requested he come down the police station which he did. Voluntarily. Made a full admission. Didn't try and minimise it.
"Your honour, you will also note he is pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity.
"Highly unusual circumstances, coming to the attention of the authorities. Your honour, you'll also notice that prior history, he's technically on a bond, for an assault."
Barrister Maley requested judge Greg McDonald "take not action on the breach of a bond" dating back to January, but requested a "conviction and a fine".
"He served his country. He's got no drug priors."
In delivering his sentence, the judge said: "I can see you've been involved in both playing competitive sport as well as coaching. [Defence reference name] speaks very highly of the support and assistance you provided him, including looking after his family while he was deployed.
"I don't know what you were doing buying that coke. It was rather strange circumstances in which you came to being found out.
"You did the right thing responding to police positively; going to the station. Making admissions. I'm going to convict you today and find you $800.
The man's good behaviour bond was extended to the 25th June 2025.
Judge: "I really hope you're not involved with these types of drugs on a regular basis. If you keep doing this sort of thing, you'll end up in jail."
We are The Mango Inquirer.
