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Fall girl takes drug rap
Margo Zlotkowski
Thursday, February 12, 2009
© The Cairns Post
Laughing: Sarah Fraser walks free from court after pleading guilty to possessing and producing 73kg of cannabis.
A SUPREME Court judge has accused a young woman's family of letting her take the fall for their extensive drug-producing operation.
Sarah Fraser, 23, was described as "the fall-guy" yesterday by an unimpressed Justice Stanley Jones who said he did not believe she was solely responsible for 84 cannabis plants weighing about 73kg found harvested and growing on hillslopes on her family’s Watsonville property.
The judge gave her a reduced sentence because he did not believe she was solely responsible. Ms Fraser had pleaded guilty in Cairns Supreme Court yesterday to possessing and producing a dangerous drug after a search by police of the West Bischoff Mill Rd property on April 11 last year.
But Mr Jones said he had "a high degree of scepticism" that all the drugs found were produced and owned by her.
"But she’s pleaded guilty to it; her family have allowed that to happen," he said.
Mr Jones said the drug production was obviously a family enterprise and there were other people involved.
"I find it regrettable that the police officers, perhaps misled by your admission, did not further investigate the circumstances of this cultivation," he told her.
"Had they done so, they might have established the involvement of other people and that might have minimised or certainly reduced your involvement."
Ordinarily, he said someone solely responsible for a drug operation of that scale would go to jail but because he did not believe it was entirely her crop, he would allow her to serve a 12-month prison sentence
as an intensive corrections order without going to jail.
The court heard that two drug crops yielded plants ranging from 40cm to 350cm, some propped up with stakes and protected by netting. At one of the sites, a further 12.5kg of harvested cannabis was found wrapped in newspaper.
Ms Fraser’s defence barrister Barry Murray said his client had been using marijuana since she was about 15 and most of her immediate family were also users. But Mr Murray said although drugs grown on the property were used by family members and some friends, his client had "claimed ownership and was the only one who did".
"She became the fall guy because she had no previous convictions and the court would be more lenient," Mr Jones said
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/02/12/28281_local-news.html
Margo Zlotkowski
Thursday, February 12, 2009
© The Cairns Post
Laughing: Sarah Fraser walks free from court after pleading guilty to possessing and producing 73kg of cannabis.
A SUPREME Court judge has accused a young woman's family of letting her take the fall for their extensive drug-producing operation.
Sarah Fraser, 23, was described as "the fall-guy" yesterday by an unimpressed Justice Stanley Jones who said he did not believe she was solely responsible for 84 cannabis plants weighing about 73kg found harvested and growing on hillslopes on her family’s Watsonville property.
The judge gave her a reduced sentence because he did not believe she was solely responsible. Ms Fraser had pleaded guilty in Cairns Supreme Court yesterday to possessing and producing a dangerous drug after a search by police of the West Bischoff Mill Rd property on April 11 last year.
But Mr Jones said he had "a high degree of scepticism" that all the drugs found were produced and owned by her.
"But she’s pleaded guilty to it; her family have allowed that to happen," he said.
Mr Jones said the drug production was obviously a family enterprise and there were other people involved.
"I find it regrettable that the police officers, perhaps misled by your admission, did not further investigate the circumstances of this cultivation," he told her.
"Had they done so, they might have established the involvement of other people and that might have minimised or certainly reduced your involvement."
Ordinarily, he said someone solely responsible for a drug operation of that scale would go to jail but because he did not believe it was entirely her crop, he would allow her to serve a 12-month prison sentence
as an intensive corrections order without going to jail.
The court heard that two drug crops yielded plants ranging from 40cm to 350cm, some propped up with stakes and protected by netting. At one of the sites, a further 12.5kg of harvested cannabis was found wrapped in newspaper.
Ms Fraser’s defence barrister Barry Murray said his client had been using marijuana since she was about 15 and most of her immediate family were also users. But Mr Murray said although drugs grown on the property were used by family members and some friends, his client had "claimed ownership and was the only one who did".
"She became the fall guy because she had no previous convictions and the court would be more lenient," Mr Jones said
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/02/12/28281_local-news.html
