Where an offender is convicted of unlawful possession of weapons or dangerous drugs on the basis of deemed possession under statutory deeming provisions, the sentencing court must assess criminality solely on the basis of deemed possession and must not attribute actual knowledge of the nature of the items possessed unless that is established by the agreed facts. The 2020 amendment to s 159A(1) of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) does not displace the principle from R v Fabre that pre-sentence custody should be declared at the earliest opportunity, particularly where the offender faces further charges to which they intend to plead not guilty.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 2 later cases that cite this judgment.