TWO men who tried to smuggle more than 1.5 tonnes of cocaine into Newcastle on a prawn trawler have had their sentences slashed on appeal.
A NSW Supreme Court found the sentencing judge had failed to take into account Jackson Ross Giles-Adams' and Christopher John Preca's willingness to facilitate the course of justice, had made a mistake in assessing the seriousness of the offence and that they had a justifiable grievance given the shorter sentence handed to their co-offender, Man Wah Chan.
Giles-Adams and Preca pleaded guilty in the local court to attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, after they were caught on a boat called the Coralynne more than 150 nautical miles off the coast of NSW with about 1.5 tonnes of cocaine stashed in the hull.
The men were sentenced to 17 years in prison, expiring August, 2037, with a non-parole period of 10 years after a 25 per cent discount. Chan was sentenced separately and handed 12 years with a non-parole period of 7 years after a 20 per cent discount.
The trio set sail between August 13 and 14, 2020 from moorings at the Commercial Fisherman's Co-Op at Wickham. About 6pm, the Royal Australian Air Force noticed a third, small high-speed boat travelling from a larger boat registered under a Chinese flag, the Zhi Vu Yun, to the Coralynne.
Almost four hours later, the vessels separated and the Coralynne headed back to the mainland - until it was intercepted by a NSW Police boat. Court documents show police saw someone throw a black sports bag overboard, which couldn't be recovered.
Once onboard, Preca told police there was a fire on the boat and officers noticed flames erupting from the hull.
Once it was extinguished, a large number of packages containing a white substance were found damaged in the fire.
A search warrant found a total of 77 hessian-wrapped packages on board, each weighing about 25 kilograms.
At sentencing, the judge found the pair played an "intermediate" role in the criminal enterprise, but the appeal found it wasn't up to the judge to make that finding.
It also found there was a "marked disparity" in sentences between Preca, Giles-Adams and Chan and upheld that as grounds for the appeal.
The pair's original sentences were quashed, and each was sentenced to a non-parole period of eight years starting August 2020.
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