Man jailed on drugs charges in Australia
A WEXFORD man, caught up in a mail-order cocaine ring in Australia, has been sentenced to four years and eight months in prison after admitting two offences of intent to supply prohibited drugs and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
Roddy Frayne, with an address at Rivervale, Perth, Western Australia, appeared before Judge Stephen Scott at the Perth District Court last week, the sentencing hearing attended by his parents Denis and Virginia Frayne.
At the end of the sentencing, Judge Stephen Scott said: ‘I wish you luck, Mr Frayne. It’s not often that a judge says that, but you come from a background that hopefully will provide you with the support you need and you will not come before this court or any other court again.’
The sentence is backdated and Frayne will be eligible for release in April of next year.
Last November, another Wexford man Liam Driscoll received a nine-year sentence after admitting to being the brains behind the mail order drugs ring which used forged driving licenses to wire money to contacts overseas who would then courier the drugs to Western Austrlia.
A third man, Brian Thomas Foley, is due before the courts at the end of August.
‘You’ve been convicted of two charges. One is a State offence, that’s conspiracy to possess with intent to supply cocaine to another. The maximum sentence is a term of imprisonment of 20 years and/or a fine of $75,000,’ Judge Scott told Frayne during the hearing.
‘The other offence is a Commonwealth offence, which is an offence of dealing with $43,094.69, which was the proceeds of crime, or there was a risk that the money would become an instrument of crime. The maximum sentence there is a term of imprisonment of 10 years and/or a fine of 600 penalty points.
‘I’m not going to compute that. There’s no necessity because this is not a case in which a fine will be imposed. You’ve pleaded guilty to each of these offences.’
‘This was an operation which was the subject of police surveillance for a considerable period of time. The State accepts that the group of Irish nationals, of which you were one, consisted primarily of Driscoll and, the State says, Foley, but that is a matter which needs to be determined on another day, but certainly Driscoll,’ said Judge Scott.
‘Driscoll was sentenced as a principal. There’s no doubt that was the role that he played. The group used a number of people as facilitators, including you.. resulting in the group bringing drugs into Australia which were sourced from
YOU COME FROM A FAMILY BACKGROUND IN WHICH THERE IS OBVIOUSLY CONSIDERABLE LOVE AND SUPPORT AND IN WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN BROUGHT UP TO RESPECT OTHERS AND TO ABIDE BY THE LAW
various countries overseas and then – and certainly sourced with the intention that they be sold at a considerable profit.
‘The conspiracy offence relates to the first tranche, that’s for around about 250 grams, in July 2005 in which you played a role by taking initial possession of the parcel, and you would then deliver the parcel to an alternative location for sorting, packaging and further distribution.
‘As to the Commonwealth offence, there were eight occasions upon which there were outgoing international fund transfers to China and the US totalling marginally over $43,000. So they’re the circumstances of the offending.
‘Your role in respect to these offences was to assist Mr Driscoll in obtaining and distributing cocaine. However, you didn’t stand to gain any financial benefit other than, you say, the waiver of a $3,000 drug debt which you owed to Driscoll, free accommodation, food, the use of a vehicle, and between seven and eight grams of cocaine.’
Judge Scott said that Frayne had said he ought to accept for sentencing purposes that Driscoll and others ‘were aware of your acute drug addiction and your need for close friendships and relationships and that you were exploited by people who knew of your mental weaknesses which led you to expose yourself to the risks and consequences associated with these offences.
‘The State on the other hand says that your level of participation in the conspiracy and the dealing in proceeds were much more significant and that is made clear by the telephone intercept material to which the State refers,’ said the judge.
‘The State says you should be sentenced on the basis that you were an active participant in the importation enterprise that had been established by Driscoll and alleged to have been established by Foley.
‘Your role was undertaken for commercial gain. The fact that it was primarily to source your cocaine use to feed your addiction still amounts to commercial gain. The State rejects the submission that you were just a naive middle man supporting a drug habit in circumstances where you were exploited.
‘Although I’m not sentencing you for selling or offering cocaine for sale or being in possession of cocaine or attempted possession of cocaine but for conspiring with Driscoll to possess cocaine with an intent to sell or supply, the nature of your participation in that conspiracy and in the Commonwealth offence is an important factor.
The judge said he accepted that Frayne had developed a cocaine addiction without which it might well be the case that he would not have become involved in the commission of these offences.
‘I’m satisfied it was your dependency on cocaine which was the driving force in you becoming involved, and whilst I readily accept the compulsion and consequent impairment to judgment which follows from an addiction to drugs of a high order and whilst that is a circumstance which might to an extent explain your conduct in committing these offences it is not by itself a mitigating factor.
‘I’ve read the pre-sentence report, the psychological and psychiatric reports, the numerous references from members of your family and your friends and others who know you and the certificates relating to courses undertaken by you when on remand and I’ve heard submissions and read submissions from your counsel.
‘I have taken into account your family background. You come from a family background in which there is obviously considerable love and support and in which you have been brought up to respect others and to abide by the law.
‘I know that your parents have come to this sentencing, come a long way, that they’ve been to see you as have others who are of support and it’s quite clear that you are apart from this offending a person who has led the majority of your life as someone who has been respectful and cognisant of the importance of behaving in a way that is not damaging to the community and this is something where you’ve gone well off the rails.
‘I accept that your time in custody has enabled you to be drug-free and to give you insight into the perils of taking cocaine and other drugs and that whilst you maintain that insight you’re unlikely to reoffend in the same or similar manner.
‘I accept that you’re remorseful and I accept that you have insight into the seriousness of your offending.
So in sentencing you, the principal matters include punishing you, personal and general deterrence and your rehabilitation.
‘You’ve been convicted of two serious drug related offences. The offence of dealing in proceeds of crime has a direct connection to the underlying purpose of the conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to sell or supply it.
For the conspiracy offence, Judge Scott sentenced Frayne to imprisonment for three years two months.
For the Commonwealth offence he imposed a sentence of 18 months.
‘In my view there is a need for the sentences to be served cumulatively. I’m satisfied that an overall sentence of four years, eight months properly reflects the overall degree of your culpability and is not crushing.
The sentences will be backdated to September 9, 2015, when Frayne was arrested.
‘You will be eligible for parole on the State’s sentence at the expiration of 19 months from the commencement of these sentences.
‘As to the Commonwealth sentence, I will order that that sentence will commence on the date being 19 months from the date of commencement of the State sentence and that is, on my calculations, 8 April 2017.
‘In respect to that sentence I order that you be released on a reconnaissance release order after 12 months upon entering into a bond in the sum of $5,000 to be of good behaviour for a period of six months upon your release. That is that you will be released on that order on 7 April, 2018.
‘So what happens is that the State’s sentence is served first. I’ve made you eligible for parole and that parole eligibility will already have arisen because 19 months from 9 September, on my calculations, is 9 April 2017,’ said Judge Scott.