The County Court sentenced a French national to 30 months' imprisonment for importing 24 grams of pure ketamine (eight times the marketable quantity), with release on a recognisance release order after 18 days already served. The Court accepted that the quantity fell at the bottom end of the marketable quantity spectrum (approximately 2.4% of the upper threshold), that the offender's rehabilitation prospects were very promising, and that further custody would not advance rehabilitation, notwithstanding the primacy of general deterrence. The Court rejected the submission that prospective deportation constituted an additional punitive consequence given the offender's limited ties to Australia, but accepted imprisonment would be more onerous due to distance from family and cultural and linguistic difficulties.
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