Christopher Northcott, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of cultivating cannabis and two charges of trafficking same, one charge of possessing a drug of dependence, and a summary charge of possessing an imitation firearm, all relating to the period of 3 January to 1 August 2024.
The agreed basis for your guilty pleas are set out in the summary of prosecution opening dated 15 September 2025.
In short, in early 2024 police observed you and GZ as part of an ongoing investigation into suspected cultivation and trafficking of cannabis in Carrum Downs.
You were seen to visit a warehouse every few days and stay there for varying lengths of time, sometimes all day, between March and July. You attended there about 68 times.
On 26 July 2024 police executed a search warrant at the warehouse in Carrum Downs. Neither you nor GZ were present, but surveillance indicated you were there earlier in the day.
Police found there five shipping containers that had been converted for growing cannabis, and other cultivation paraphernalia including lights, filters, machines, nutrients, and a drying rack containing dried cannabis. There was no sign of any other legitimate business activity and the office was empty.
On the same day, police seized the plants that were there - 16 cannabis plants weighing a total of about 29 kilograms and about 21 kilograms of dried cannabis (charges 1 and 2). They also seized other items.
On inspection of your phones at a later point, police also found messages between you and GZ, demonstrating your involvement, at GZ's direction, in preparing the cannabis at that location.
On 1 August 2024 you were arrested and transported to a police station where they interviewed you.
They found on your person a bag of cocaine (Charge 5) and at your property they found and seized 27 small cannabis plants, weighting a total of less than a kilo. There was a hydroponic set up in your garage, as well as some dried cannabis in bags and tubs. The total weight of the dried cannabis found was 4.5 kilograms (charges 3 and 4).
Following your arrest you were interviewed by police. During the interview you were honest about the matters relating to your home, but you denied knowing anything about the cannabis growing at the warehouse.
I accept, as your counsel described it, that you panicked. In any case, you have pleaded guilty, which is a confession that you were involved to the growing at the warehouse.
You spent a day in custody or part of a day and were then released on bail.
Notwithstanding a delay in reaching this court, you pleaded guilty at an early stage of the proceedings. It resolved within a couple of months of the committal mention.
I accept that your plea demonstrates your willingness to accept responsibility and facilitate the processes in court. It also has the value of avoiding the cost and inconvenience to the community and all those involved of a trial. This tends to minimise your sentence.
Personally, you grew up as an only child to a single mum in Melbourne and reported having a relatively stable childhood without neglect or abuse.
You met the mother of your children later at around 19 years of age and you were together for some 20 years, before separating in 2021. That relationship had become unstable in part due to your ex-partner's illness and substance use.
Closer to the separation you report that things were getting very bad for her. She was often intoxicated, and Child Protection had become involved in your family life. Once you were separated, you ultimately became the sole caregiver to your children and receiving some help from your mother. You reported the separation and all that led to it had a significant effect on your children and your combined mental health together.
In schooling years you proceeded until Year 11, left school to engage in apprenticeships in carpentry and as a chef. You have worked in those industries, particularly as a chef for most of your professional life.
In 2014 you started your own business and were successful until COVID-19 struck and affected, in fact decimated, your business, as it did to many, with all the lockdowns. So much so was made clear in a letter of Scott Konobi (Exhibit 3).
The pandemic had a significant effect on your business. You report, and I accept, that you were under significant financial strain because of debts in trying to keep the business running.
Ultimately that led to a decline in your mental health and in part forms the basis or the context of your poor decision making, which led to your assistance to GZ in cultivating cannabis and trafficking.
As an early adult you used substances perhaps recreationally, including ecstasy and other drugs. In your adult life you used periodically but had not developed an addiction that hampered your day-to-day living.
That is the case until November 2023 when you became a higher user of cocaine and methamphetamine, using significant amounts every day, and this continued up until the time of your offending.
In terms of your criminal history, it is minor and unrelated. I do not give it any weight.
Since your arrest in August 2024, a little over a year ago, you have reported to anybody you have engaged with, complete abstinence.
In December 2024 you began counselling with Karly Doyle and you have attended at least 13 sessions with her, she is an experienced and qualified counsellor, and the most recent session was in recent days. She reports that you present with several protective factors and that you were a driven and determined individual who is committed to creating a prosperous future (Exhibit 2).
The report of neuropsychologist Mathew Staios (Exhibit 1) indicated that you do not have any antisocial personality traits, based on appropriate psychological assessment. Nor do you have any serious psychological disorders that could have led to your offending, or that might lead to any instability moving forward.
There are signs, on your report and on those who know you, of recurrent depressive episodes and these have sorely affected you at some peak times in the past. Dr Staios opines that your dependency may make you more susceptible to willingly submit to the wishes of others, and that this would be relevant to your offending. I will take that into account as I have assessed your role.
Dr Staios concludes that the offending appeared to be out of character for you. I accept that it resulted from unique and difficult circumstances that arose from the pandemic and all that that involved. He suggests that your prospects for rehabilitation are good, and I agree.
During your plea you relied on character references from people who know you well: John Horseman, Michael Guy, Paul Gidde and Rachael Daffner (Exhibit 5). It is clear that these people view you as a good worker with a diligent work ethic, and also that you have been candid with them about discussing your offending and how you feel about it. I accept that.
I am encouraged by your willingness to talk about your offending in that way with people that you trust, and particularly with your employer Paul Gidde, who could have let you go because of the risks to his business but did not because of your character.
A number of referees refer to your dedicated approach to parenting and the care you have for your children and that you put them first. There would be some question about that during the period of the offending, but I accept that since that came to light and you have stopped using, that that is the case.
The maximum penalty for Charges 1, 2, 3 and 4, namely cultivating and trafficking cannabis in a non‑commercial quantity is 15 years' imprisonment each. For Charge 5, it is one year. For the summary offence of possessing an imitation firearm, a gel blaster or the like, the maximum penalty is two years.
I find the objective gravity, that is the seriousness overall of the offending that you were involved in, to be moderately high. Charges 1 and 2 are more serious than the offending in Charges 3 and 4, because of the circumstances in which the cannabis was grown, the fact that it was of a much larger quantity, and that it involved more than one person.
I accept also that there is very significant overlap between Charges 1 and 2 - Charge 1 relating to the growing and Charge 2 to the dried cannabis found at the same site. I accept that they are all appropriately considered to be part of the one ongoing act of cultivation and trafficking. I will impose an aggregate sentence in relation to those two charges.
As I have alluded to, you were working under the effective direction of GZ, meaning that you were not the orchestrator of that scheme at the warehouse and your role in that offending therefore is less significant than his.
As is clear in much of the material you provided, this circumstance explains how you got into this offending rather than excuses it. But it is significant that the difficult circumstances you faced resulted in being overborne by debt and a sense of desperation to relieve that debt.
I have not lost sight of the fact that your own drug use will have contributed to that, which in itself does not reduce your culpability. Of course, the marriage breakdown, the volatile way in which that happened, and your own mental health being in a poor state contributed.
Your counsel Mr Rattray submits, and it is supported by the opinion of Dr Staios and Ms Doyle, that the offending was out of character and a bad response to genuine hardship, and I accept that.
In all the circumstances I find that your blameworthiness for what you did to be relatively low compared to the seriousness of the conduct.
Your counsel also submits, and I accept, that you continued to play a crucial role in supporting at least one of your children who lives with you fulltime and requires additional supports with her ongoing health concerns.
I will not detail those in open court, but I accept them, as does the prosecutor. I received evidence from your child's GP, their high school, and their counsellor from whom they receive support, including about the lack of availability of support from her mother (Exhibit4).
I accept that your imprisonment would exacerbate their ongoing health issues. It is on this basis, as the prosecutor agreed and I accept, that there are exceptional circumstances and this should lead to a lenient approach that is not always seen in such cases as this.
I am satisfied that when considering all of the circumstances, the objective circumstances of this matter are exceptional. It is an unusual case with a range of factors that have combined, leading me to accept your counsel's submission that a Community Correction Order is open.
The prosecutor submitted that specific deterrence and community protection should nevertheless be considered in any sentence imposed, and with respect to general deterrence the seriousness of the charges must be seen, through imposing the sentence, to send a message to others who are tempted to engage in this kind of conduct. I have considered general deterrence and other factors when arriving at the sentence.
You show good insight into your offending and by all accounts you have good prospects of rehabilitation, and I accept that. I had you assessed for a CCO and that assessment report, including the mental health report, indicates that you are a low risk of further offending (Exhibit A).
Among the recommendations from Corrections is that you would be fit for engaging in community work and drug treatment and rehabilitation. The community work is a critical component of paying back to the community for your offending, particularly where the circumstances of the warehouse crop was serious.
It is also recommended by Corrections that due to your substance use, you engage in treatment and rehabilitation on an ongoing basis, and I accept that that is necessary.
I note that your mental health is now under control and a condition in relation to that was not recommended.
The prosecution's ultimate submission, having heard all the material, was that a combined sentence would be appropriate, but, perhaps by a narrow margin, I disagree. In all the circumstances, I will impose a CCO alone.
On Charges 1, 2, 3 and 4 and on the summary offence, I sentence you to a single CCO for two years.
Other than the mandatory conditions which have been explained to you, involving attendance on Corrections and obeying their lawful directions, not leaving Victoria without permission et cetera, you are to engage in further conditions of drug treatment and rehabilitation and you are to perform 200 hours of unpaid community work throughout the period of the order.
I will not require you to be supervised but you will need to attend on Corrections for the purposes of community work and your drug treatment.
I make the forfeiture order relating to the drugs and associated items, it being unopposed.
If you had not have pleaded guilty to this offending, albeit it is a somewhat artificial indication given the exceptional circumstances that applied, I would have imposed a combination sentence which would have required you to spend time in custody.