“The risk of being involved in a serious car accident increases significantly when the driver’s blood alcohol range substantially exceeds the basic legal limit,” outlines a 2023 NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research report on sentencing high range prescribed concentration of alcohol drivers. “In particular”, underscored the BOCSAR researchers David Saffron and Marilyn Chilvers,… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In a 4 July 2022 letter on drug driving laws, Drive Change campaign lead David Heilpern explained to NSW Labor MLC Chris Rath that when he was a NSW Magistrate, he’d sentenced “literally hundreds of defendants”, who were on cannabis medicine yet convicted over drug driving. Indeed, part of… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal (NSWCCA) confirmed in a 19 February 2024 ruling that the offence of the offence of drug driving in New South Wales is an absolute liability offence, which means the long relied upon legal defence of honest and reasonable mistake of fact is not… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Eight years ago last Thursday, in Lismore Local Court, then NSW Magistrate David Heilpern ruled in favour of Joseph Carrall in regard to a drug driving charge, as he found the accused hadn’t consumed cannabis for “at least nine days prior” to testing positive for driving with its presence in… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim A man was driving along Cowpasture Road in southwest Sydney’s Horningsea Park, close to midnight on 12 September 2020, when the manner of his driving caught the attention of some NSW police officers, who promptly directed him to pull his utility over. The officers subjected the driver to a… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim NSW police executed a search warrant on 15 April 2020, at a house in Yagoona, where Quoc Toan Chu lived with his parents. When officers arrived at the premises, Chu indicated which room was his. And when asked if that was where the drugs were hidden, he replied, “Just… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim NSW police commenced an investigation in June 2017, which led to detectives identifying eight men involved in a drug manufacturing operation producing MDA (3, 4-methylenedioxyamphetamine), a substance usually sold as MDMA on the street but can differ in effect. The joint criminal enterprise involved three properties belonging to one of… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In mid-May, news hit that western Sydney is in the grips of a gang war, which involves feuding between the Alameddine and Hamzy families, and has resulted in 13 dead gang members. So, the NSW Police Force has launched Taskforce Erebus in response. In its first week, Erebus had reportedly… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim PM Scott Morrison, home affairs minister Karen Andrews and AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw lined up before the press last June, to announce the success of the transnational drug crime investigation known locally as Operation Ironside. Spruiked as the “most significant operation in policing history”, Ironside had, at that time, resulted in… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim A young man, who we will refer to as Mr C for the purposes of this article, commenced using drugs in his last year at a high school, as his girlfriend was using them. Eighteen months later, in late 2019, Mr C, who was regularly using MDMA by then,… Read more »
