Jail for drug importation

Highton man cops 16-month sentence

A HIGHTON man was jailed yesterday after importing up to $300,000 of drugs to the home he shared with his girlfriend and her mother.

Federal police raided the Pinnacle Close home on October 6 last year after intercepting nine packages mailed to Jay Robert Vince from the Netherlands.

More than 165g of pure amphetamine was split among seven of the packages, and the other two carried 158g of pure MDMA (ecstasy).

The raid unearthed a further 13g of amphetamine and 78g of MDMA, as well as 65g of magic mushrooms, 300g of cannabis and a small amount of LSD.

Vince, now 24, admitted the drugs were all his, and spent a year in jail before pleading guilty to seven charges in Geelong County Court last month.

He was sentenced by Judge Susan Cohen in Melbourne yesterday, and will be released from jail early next year after serving 16 months behind bars.

The court heard Vince’s girlfriend’s mother was “shocked and dismayed” when police raided her home. But after some “difficult conversations” with the defendant the woman provided a reference in his support.

Hooked on cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamine, Vince claimed the drugs were exclusively for his own use, saying he started importing them because “drugs were so expensive to buy in Australia”.

But Judge Cohen said the quantities he ordered suggested he was selling for profit, as did a number of items found during the police raid, including a box marked ‘capsule machine’ and digital scales.

The court heard six months before the bust, Vince was fined but avoided a conviction for trafficking and possessing MDMA after being caught providing drugs to friends at a concert.

While reasonably intelligent, Vince was “naive” and lacked insight into the impact his drug crimes had on the community, Judge Cohen said.

Rather than being legitimately remorseful, the man regretted his actions because they had landed him in jail and hurt his loved one, she said.

“That is not the same as appreciating how fully wrong your conduct was,” Judge Cohen said.

Her Honour said Vince’s ambition to reform rested on his ability to stay off drugs.

After pleading guilty to importing and possessing marketable quantities of amphetamine and MDMA and possessing magic mushrooms, cannabis and LSD, Vince was given a 2½ year sentence. But Judge Cohen ruled he could serve the final 14 months in the community on a reconnaissance order.

He will be on a corrections order at the same time, and will have to do 60 hours of unpaid community work.