A judge has told a Windale woman - guilty of supplying a commercial quantity of methylamphetamine - that she would certainly learn her fate next month, after he again delayed sentencing so she could finalise arrangements for her adult son, who lives with a disability.
Marife Farnham, 50, pleaded guilty in Newcastle District Court in March before Judge Peter McGrath granted the first of several adjournments - during which Ms Farnham was given bail - in order for her to set up care and finances for her son while she served what was expected to be a full-time jail term.
The court heard on Wednesday afternoon, when the matter was set for sentencing, that an NDIS plan had been arranged for Ms Farnham's son but NCAT proceedings regarding his finances had been adjourned earlier in the day.
Defence barrister Jacob Tate said Ms Farnham could participate in the NCAT proceedings via video-link from jail but she wanted to remain in the community so she could appear with her son personally.
The Crown opposed the adjournment, saying Ms Farnham had committed "an extremely serious offence" and that there had already been lengthy delays to the matter being finalised.
But Judge McGrath adjourned the matter to December 1, and continued Ms Farnham's bail, "in the wider interest of justice".
"It is a particularly serious offence and Ms Farnham has been left in no doubt as to the nature of the sentencing outcome," Judge McGrath said.
Ms Farnham and her de facto partner Noel Bautista took a hire car or borrowed a vehicle to drive to Sydney multiple times a week to collect ice to sell in the Hunter region while being monitored by police from October to December, 2021, when they were arrested.
During that period, the couple supplied 649.4 grams of ice in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie communities - mainly to fund their own drug habits.
Bautista was jailed for a maximum of five years and 10 months over related charges in August.
The court previously heard that Ms Farnham, who moved to Australia from the Philippines in 1995, would likely be deported after she served her sentence, making it difficult for her to maintain contact with her son.
