Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 - NSW ...

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80 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
Chapter 6. The Drug Premises Act - new offences 6.1. Overview In this chapter, we discuss the new offences created by the Drug Premises Act, using case studies from court proceedings to illustrate aspects of how these offences have been considered in court. We will also discuss concerns that were raised about the reversal of the onus of proof in relation to two of the offences in the Act: one of being found on, entering or leaving drug premises, and the other of organising or assisting drug premises. Demographic information about people who were charged with offences in the Act, and where available, information on pleas entered into, and court outcomes for defendants, is also provided. 6.2. Offences created by the Drug Premises Act The Drug Premises Act creates three key offences 423 relating to drug premises. These offences are: • being on, entering or leaving drug premises 424 • organising, conducting, or assisting in organising or conducting, drug premises and 425 • allowing use of premises as drug premises. 426 A person cannot be convicted of any of the above offences unless it is first proven in court that the premises in question are drug premises. 427 In addition, a person cannot be found guilty of being found on, entering or leaving drug premises if they satisfy the court that they had a lawful purpose, or a lawful excuse, for being there. 428 Similarly, if a person is charged with organising, conducting, or assisting in organising or conducting drug premises, they cannot be found guilty if they satisfy the court that they did not know, or could not reasonably be expected to have known, that the premises were drug premises. 429 The maximum penalty for each of these offences is 12 months imprisonment, or a fine of $5,000, or both. For a second or subsequent offence under each of these provisions, the maximum penalty increases to five years imprisonment, a fine of $55,000, or both. 430 The figure below shows the numbers of charges laid in NSW for each of these offences over the review period. The number of drug premises charges laid in each LAC in NSW is presented in the Appendix of this report. Most of the charges that were laid under the Drug Premises Act during the review period were for the offence of being found on, entering or leaving drug premises. A total of 220 charges were laid for this offence. A total of 108 charges were laid for the offence of allowing a premises to be used as a drug premises. A total of 66 charges were laid for the offence of organising or assisting drug premises. 423 Several other offences in the Act relate to the obstruction of police during the execution of the search warrant, and for failing to state full name and address to police . A person may be convicted of these offences even if premises are not proven to be drug premises. Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 9. 424 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 12. 425 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 14. 426 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 13. 427 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 11(1). 428 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 12(2). 429 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 14(3). 430 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 12, 13 and 14 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 81
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Review of the Police Powers (Drug P
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Contents Preface ..................
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Chapter 11. Drug move-on powers in
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Acknowledgements This report was re
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Part One. Background. Chapter 1. In
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Drug offences, unlike for example,
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elieve is in a public place with th
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Chapter 2. Methodology In this chap
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2.3.5. Health data NSP distribution
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As the table indicates, more than o
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2.4.7. Complaints The NSW Ombudsman
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NSW Police advised us that calculat
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Another data limitation is that COP
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Chapter 3. Legislative survey This
Page 29 and 30: Once police have entered the suspec
Page 31 and 32: The table below sets out the penalt
Page 33 and 34: (c) that the nature and extent of t
Page 35 and 36: The Act contains four additional in
Page 37 and 38: A fortification removal notice is r
Page 39 and 40: For example, section 39(3) of the Q
Page 41 and 42: Part Two. Drug premises Chapter 4.
Page 43 and 44: In the police training manual on th
Page 45 and 46: Case study 2. Drug premises search
Page 47 and 48: 4.2.4. Presenting the application b
Page 49 and 50: A Crime Manager we interviewed from
Page 51 and 52: applications. In this Act, an inves
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 5. The definition of drug p
Page 55 and 56: 5.2. Recommendation That Parliament
Page 57 and 58: 5.5.2. Section 11(2)(b): fortificat
Page 59 and 60: In our chapter on Cabramatta, we di
Page 61 and 62: The woman was found guilty of allow
Page 63 and 64: 5.5.5. Means or devices for drug us
Page 65 and 66: Number of Premises Figure 7. Razor
Page 67 and 68: However, no other evidence of drug
Page 69 and 70: • magnum revolver and a 0.357 mag
Page 71 and 72: 5.5.8. Section 11(2)(g): large amou
Page 73 and 74: The magistrate noted that there wer
Page 75 and 76: In relation to the money located on
Page 77 and 78: 5.7.6. Cars as drug premises As we
Page 79: … rather than being on the edge o
Page 83 and 84: • the offence of being found on,
Page 85 and 86: With reverse onus, we didn’t have
Page 87 and 88: In the following section, we will d
Page 89 and 90: Officers from the State Crime Comma
Page 91 and 92: The second reading speech, which gi
Page 93 and 94: In the granny flat, police found ca
Page 95 and 96: Table 6. Pleas entered and court ou
Page 97 and 98: The magistrate said that he had a r
Page 99 and 100: 13. Allowing use of premises as dru
Page 101 and 102: The defendant says he was not there
Page 103 and 104: Figure 13: Ages of people charged w
Page 105 and 106: Table 12. Number of charges for var
Page 107 and 108: Chapter 7. Cabramatta 7.1. Introduc
Page 109 and 110: No. of Drug Premises Figure 14: Num
Page 111 and 112: Table 13. Information about drug pr
Page 113 and 114: It should be clear that this legisl
Page 115 and 116: The unit was in disarray, with spar
Page 117 and 118: 7.5. Level of drug supply the law i
Page 119 and 120: 7.5.3 Firearms, weapons and high le
Page 121 and 122: 7.6. Charges laid under the Drug Pr
Page 123 and 124: 7.6.4. Young Asian people and drug
Page 125 and 126: Of these 52 people, 31 people pled
Page 127 and 128: 7.8. Conclusion: Impact of the Drug
Page 129 and 130: By way of comment, the continuing a
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Chapter 8. Targeting drug supply Pa
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Table 18. Drug Misuse and Trafficki
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Low level drug suppliers are more l
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Other forms of organisation in evid
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Table 19. Drugs Located, State-wide
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Table 23. Drugs located, Northern R
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However, the submission concluded b
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To begin with, telephone intercepts
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The prohibited drugs that were loca
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One factor that appears to have per
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