Circumstances of offending
- The Agreed Facts before the Court are as follows:
1. On 12 September 2018 police observed Khanh Luu, Lam Huynh and Van Trinh Huynh inside the gates of the premises.
2. Police approached the side of the premises and identified a distinct smell of cannabis coming from the premises.
3. The following conversation took place between Senior Constable Breen and the offender:
4. SC Breen: "Do you live here?"
5. Offender: "No"
6. SC Breen: "Do you have keys for the house?"
7. Offender: Yes"
8. The offender handed the keys to the premises to police.
9. The offender was placed under arrest.
10. Police entered the premises using the keys provided to them by the offender. Inside the premises the police identified a large hydroponic set up.
11. Lam Huynh and Van Trinh Huynh were placed under arrest.
12. A qualified Agronomist certified a total of 231 cannabis plants being grown at the premises.
13. The following items were seized from inside the premises:
1. 133 lamp shades;
2. 160 transformers;
3. 133 globes;
4. 133 light fittings;
5. 6 power boards;
6. 2 red bull cans; and
7. 3 pairs of gloves.
1. The offender was conveyed to Fairfield Police Station where he participated in an electronically recorded interview with police.
2. The offender made the following admissions to police:
1. He and Huynh had come to the premises every night between 6pm and 7pm to water, trim, look after the trees and to turn on the lights;
2. He and Huynh would take the trimmings to an address in Eastwood and Huynh would drive;
3. He and Huynh went inside the premises on the day of the arrest;
4. He knew that the plants were cannabis and that it is illegal, and he was aware there were about 200 plants - both big and small.
5. He and Huynh were getting five to six thousand dollars every six weeks to do this and they would come to the premises together every time;
6. He and Huynh knew that it was illegal, but they needed money to support their families in Vietnam;
7. He had seen the electrician come and open up a hole in the wall but knew nothing more.
8. He lived with Huynh and on every occasion he went to the premises he was with Huynh.
1. The offender's DNA was located inside two blue latex gloves from inside the premises.
- The offender gave supplementary evidence and was cross-examined. I found he was a satisfactory witness and that such (brief) cross-examination as there was did not diminish his credit. To the extent that this evidence related to the circumstances of the offending, much of it concerned his involvement with the co-accused, against whom the offender has agreed to testify in a forthcoming trial of the co-accused (next month). In this regard, the offender said that in April 2018, about 5 months before the offending, he first met the co-accused in a coffee shop. He shared residential premises with the co-accused for 3 months (sharing rooms). He was approached by an unidentified person in a nightclub to water some plants; being the premises in which the cultivation of the cannabis plants occurred.
- The offender admitted that he was aware that what he was doing was illegal but engaged in the offending behaviour regardless since he needed money to pay his parents, who were nationals and residents of Vietnam. He said that his parents had taken out a loan to finance the offender's schooling, and that his parents were subjected to threats if not harassment. (This evidence was hearsay in nature, although no objection was taken to it on that account). He said that over a 10 week period in which he engaged in the offending conduct, his earnings for his unlawful activities were approximately $10,000; of which $7,000 was sent over to his parents; $2,000 were retained by him for his rental and food and the balance was spent gambling each week. He said that prior to the offending conduct occurring, his financial means were quite desperate.
- This was explicable by the circumstance that with the expiry of his visa, the offender had become an illegal immigrant; which, apart from anything else, rendered him illegible for social security benefits. He did not have the means of seeking to renew the visa, and after he had finished his schooling (Year 12), he had engaged in one incomplete year doing a cookery course and a handyman job, his means were extremely modest. This predicament arose despite the offender's belief that he needed to financially assist his parents in Vietnam.