Christian Mark, on Indictment Q12247204, you are to be sentenced for one charge of trafficking the drug of dependence cocaine in a commercial quantity, three charges of trafficking in the drugs of dependence ecstasy, methylamphetamine and ketamine, and one charge of knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime. Applicable maximum sentences are 25 years' imprisonment for trafficking in a commercial quantity, five years' imprisonment for trafficking simpliciter and 15 years' imprisonment for knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime. You are also to be sentenced for the summary charge of dealing with property suspected of being proceeds of crime, which has a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment.
Trafficking a drug of dependence in a commercial quantity is a Category 2 offence requiring in your circumstances a sentence of imprisonment. On Charges 2 to 4, you are to be sentenced as a serious offender under Part 2A of the Sentencing Act.
You pleaded guilty before me on 16 February 2026. When interviewed by police on 20 October 2024, you made full admissions. You gave police important detail of the offending. I shall return to this.
You receive the benefit of an early plea of guilty and a very high level of cooperation. Your plea has expressed remorse, accepted responsibility and facilitated the interests of justice.
At your plea hearing on 16 February, Mr Hammill for the Crown tendered a written prosecution opening. Ms Marcou for you tendered the forensic psychological report of Luke Armstrong dated 6 February 2026 and letters of work and character reference. She provided a written outline of plea submissions and also the 2018 to 2022 Sentencing Advisory Council Sentencing Snapshot for trafficking in a commercial quantity.
The circumstances of your offending are set out in the tendered Crown opening, which is Exhibit A. My own summary is therefore shorter. It includes matters put on your behalf not challenged by the Crown.
On 19 October 2024, you had become the target of police surveillance. You were observed at two Shepparton hotels interacting with people and going to and from your car. Police intercepted you, searched your vehicle and later your home. In the glove box, they found zip lock bags containing cocaine, amphetamine and ketamine, also some cash. At your home was found, similarly packaged, various amounts of ketamine,; amphetamine and ecstasy; also some cash, including $2,600 in a locked tin. Total amounts in both places were 5.3 grams of cocaine (Charge 1), 60 grams of amphetamine, about 65 grams of ecstasy (Charge 2) and about 10 grams of ketamine (Charge 4). All of these were variously placed and packaged in small zip lock deal bags. A mobile phone contained records reflecting sales, usually in very small quantities, and moneys paid or owed. There were also text messages reflecting trade, mainly in cocaine.
An interview had commenced but had been suspended for the house search and then recommenced. I find that you gave a frank and detailed account. You are charged with, and have pleaded guilty to, trafficking cocaine in a commercial quantity. I accept as unchallenged Ms Marcou's analysis of the evidence, including the text messages and what you volunteered in interview, that over the approximate six months prior you had sold about 560 grams of that drug at about 70 to 80 per cent purity. The relevant legislative threshold is 500 grams. A large commercial quantity is 2,000 grams. I find that you have not admitted and then pleaded guilty to an overwhelming or certain Crown case on commercial quantity. This is not challenged by the Crown. Your police interview admissions are an important, perhaps critical part of the prosecution case on that. You are entitled, particularly on Charge 1, to a significant discount on sentence; Ms Marcou pointed to the Court of Appeal case of R v Doran. It is also conceded by the Crown that your trafficking did not amount to a
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Giretti-style business. The $2,600 and other relatively modest sums of cash found are the subject of the summary charge of suspected proceeds of crime. $300 of the $425 found in the car you admitted to be knowingly such proceeds paid to you for sale or sales on the day of surveillance.
9. You are a 31-year-old man without relevant prior offending. You were raised in the Shepparton area. Your father inexplicably left you, your mother and younger brother when you were 12. Your mother continued to raise you by herself. You are close and grateful to her. There was little emotional engagement with your father when young. However, you have reconnected with him in adulthood. Both parents attended your plea hearing.
10. You left school to work as a painter and decorator after work experience in that. You have had a good work ethic. You were in the same job for seven years and then another in the same trade for four years. You lost that job because of your drug use. That happened only one week before your arrest. You began using cannabis in teenage. In your twenties, you moved to so-called party drugs, leading to dependent use of cocaine. You had five older
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half-brothers, sons of your father. You were close to one. He died suddenly in 2019. This had a considerable impact upon you and marked an escalation in your drug use. At time of offending, you were snorting 7 grams a day. You have a damaged septum.
11. You trafficked these drugs alone. I accept that a significant part of it was to sustain your own use. You traded in small quantities - for example, at or near local hotels - in person-to-person sales. You seemed to have purchased in some bulk out of town, an ounce or a few ounces at a time. There is no sign of enrichment. You were also drinking and gambling addictively.
12. Since arrest, you have been on bail and have taken steps toward rehabilitation over that now approximate 16 months. You have returned to your trade and built up your own business over the time. This prison sentence will affect that, but you feel positive about reclaiming it after release. You have struggled to address your drug addiction. That is with the support of your current partner, whom you met shortly before your arrest. She does not use drugs. She also attended court. Over 2025, you reduced and limited your use. There was a relapse in the middle of that year, I accept in the context of the stress of this upcoming case and a prison sentence. You have recovered from that, cut down again, and state that you have not used at all since the beginning of this year. On this I bear in mind your candour about the circumstances of offending when interviewed by police. You take antidepressant medication.
13. Forensic psychologist Luke Armstrong diagnoses persistent depressive disorder over much of the last decade, and also features of dependent personality disorder connected to experiences of abandonment and emotional neglect in your childhood. He states as follows:
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'At the point of arrest, he [meaning you] was suffering a gambling disorder, stimulant use disorder; he was an alcoholic; there were features of a dependent personality disorder, persistent depressive disorder'.
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You are in need of psychological support and treatment in respect of your mental health conditions. This is set out in his report. I accept his opinion that your mental health means imprisonment will be harder for you and that there is a substantial risk of deterioration in it.
Drug trafficking is a serious crime. In this case, your trafficking in a commercial quantity of cocaine (Charge 1) is a particularly serious offence, attracting a very high maximum sentence and mandatory imprisonment The drug trade causes major harm, often tragically so. Such offending makes relevant sentencing considerations of moral culpability, deterrence (that is, both general and specific deterrence); the need for condemnation of it and proportional punishment. It is necessary to protect the community by deterring the offender and by deterring others.
However, in your case, there are a number of moderating factors affecting the length of imprisonment I should impose. They include the following.
Your plea of guilty and cooperation. As I have pointed out, that cooperation has been of a high level, essentially amounting to the basis for proof of a commercial quantity on Charge 1.
Your personal history and circumstances. This particularly includes the evidence of your mental health conditions and symptoms.
To some extent, the circumstances of your offending. I accept that the commercial quantity trafficking (Charge 1) is toward the low or lower end in the context of what that crime can be. Of course, it is and remains a very serious crime in itself. The other offences before me stand as considerably less serious examples than Charge 1, in a way incidental to the main trade. The indictable proceeds-of-crime charge concerns $300.
I find that you have genuine prospects for rehabilitation. There is family and your partner's support. You have work skills and a past good record at that. I also see your level of cooperation with the investigation and proceeding to be consistent with a desire to reform.
These factors justify a shorter sentence than what the objectively seen circumstances of offending would be seen to require. In my view, this particularly applies to the minimum time I should set.
You are to be sentenced as a serious offender on Charges 2 to 4. Accordingly, community protection becomes on those charges the principal sentencing purpose. In the circumstances of your case, I do not intend to act under ss6D and 6E to impose a longer than proportionate sentence or to direct full cumulation on those charges.
After considering the relevant matters, both adverse and favourable, I sentence you as follows. Stand up now. On all five charges on the indictment Q12247204 and the summary charge before me, I impose an aggregate sentence of 18 months' imprisonment. I set a minimum term before eligibility for parole of eight months. Had you not pleaded guilty, I would have imposed a sentence of three years with a minimum term of two years. Are there other orders?
MR HAMMILL: Your Honour, there is just one matter, and I - you in a sense have already done this, but I just want to make sure that it's accurately put on to the record. The Sentencing Act, s89DI(1), - - -
HIS HONOUR: Yes.
MR HAMMILL: - - - and I read as follows, 'On the conviction of a person by a court for a serious drug offence, - - -
HIS HONOUR: Yes.
MR HAMMILL: - - - [of which this is one]' - - -
HIS HONOUR: Two to four of those.
MR HAMMILL: Yes.
HIS HONOUR: Yes.
MR HAMMILL: 'The court must make an order declaring the person to be a serious drug offender', so - - -
HIS HONOUR: All right. Yes, I make that order.
MR HAMMILL: Thank you, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: I thought there was just a requirement to record that he was sentenced as a serious offender, - - -
MR HAMMILL: Yes. Your Honour needs to make a declaration - - -
HIS HONOUR: - - - but I need to make an order that - what's the order again that I - - -
MR HAMMILL: That he is - to quote the Act, 'make an order declaring the person to be a serious offender'.
HIS HONOUR: All right. Well, I make that order.
MR HAMMILL: Yes, Your Honour. Thank you.
HIS HONOUR: Up until yesterday, there was one day of pre-sentence detention.
MR HAMMILL: There are now three - - -
HIS HONOUR: That was overnight on arrest, and now there are two, and I should declare two days, shouldn't I?
MR HAMMILL: We think it's three, Your Honour. Was it Monday or Tuesday?
MS MARCOU: It's three. It was Monday, I think - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
MR HAMMILL: Yes.
HIS HONOUR: All right. Well, three - - -
MR HAMMILL: We're not going to - - -
HIS HONOUR: You don't declare one day, - - -
MR HAMMILL: No.
HIS HONOUR: - - - but you do declare any more, - - -
MR HAMMILL: We're not quibble - - -
HIS HONOUR: - - - so I declare three days of pre-sentence detention.
MR HAMMILL: No, Your Honour. Yes, indeed.
HIS HONOUR: All right.
MS MARCOU: If the court pleases.
HIS HONOUR: All right. Nothing else? Are there other orders?
MR HAMMILL: Can I take you - - -
HIS HONOUR: I suppose disposal and forfeiture.
MR HAMMILL: Yes. Thank you, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: Yes, all right. Well, I'll make those orders. They're in relation to the mobile phone and the money, that's the forfeiture order, and the disposal order is in relation to the drugs that have been seized.
MR HAMMILL: Yes, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: So I'll sign those orders in - well, I've already signed them
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for - well, I've signed one of them. Yes, all right. Nothing else to do or say?
47. MR HAMMILL: No. Thank you, Your Honour.
48. HIS HONOUR: Yes. Various people have come to support Mr Mark. It's not as easy here because of the glass. I usually allow a short period of time for him to speak to those people. I don't know how it could be done in this court.
49. MR HAMMILL: If it can be done, we have no objection to it being done.
50. HIS HONOUR: Yes. Well, what normally - sorry?
51. VOICE: (Indistinct words) move the glass across.
52. MR HAMMILL: I think the glass can slide across.
53. HIS HONOUR: In this case I think you can move the glass across and you can speak briefly to those people who have come to support you, Mr Mark. So we'll do that now. Can the prison officers or the policeman do that.
54. MR HAMMILL: Yes.
55. HIS HONOUR: It necessarily must be short. So you can do that now. I'll remain here whilst that happens.
56. MR HAMMILL: Yes, Your Honour.
57. HIS HONOUR: All right, now - Mr Mark must be taken to custody now. Good. Thank you. I'll leave the Bench whilst that happens, - - -
58. MR HAMMILL: Yes, Your Honour.
59. HIS HONOUR: - - - but thank you. Thank you, Mr Marcou. We'll turn you off now.
60. MS MARCOU: Thank you. If the court pleases.