Adrian Hilary Barber has had his sentence for dealing drugs upheld. Photo: Sang Hyun Cho.
A drug dealer who tried to argue his stash was mostly for personal use has had his appeal knocked back.
Kiama man Adrian Hilary Barber was pulled over by police on 14 December 2022.
In the engine bay of the car police found 25 grams of methylamphetamine and buprenorphine.
In the boot of the car police found a plunger syringe and two ice pipes. In a hidden compartment in the boot police found 96.5 grams of butanediol.
Barber also had a key to a safe in his possession.
Police were granted a search warrant to Barber’s Kiama home, where they found three bottles of butanediol locked in a safe in a wardrobe. The combined weight was 1008.7 grams.
In his bedroom police found a ledger related to the supply of butanediol.
As a result Barber pled guilty to a charge of supplying methylamphetamine and two charges of possessing a prohibited weapon.
He pled not guilty to a further charge of possessing a third prohibited weapon, and to a charge of supplying a commercial quantity of butanediol.
He argued that he intended to consume the total of more than a kilogram of butanediol himself.
Butanediol is an industrial solvent which can have a similar effect to MDMA when consumed.
He was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to five years and seven months imprisonment, with a non-parole period of three years and seven months.
Barber has appealed his conviction for supplying a commercial quantity of butanediol.
He argued that the amount he intended to consume would have left him with less than a kilogram to sell, and that he should instead have been found guilty of a lesser drug supply charge.
Judge Huw Baker wasn’t having it, however.
He said it was impossible to determine how much Barber would have used himself, and the fact he possessed a commercial quantity of the drug and some was intended for sale was enough to satisfy the legal requirements of the commercial supply charge.
“The applicant’s offence did not become radically more serious at the point at which the quantity of the drug in his possession moved from 999 grams to one kilogram,” Judge Baker said.
“The punishment to be exacted should reflect what an offender has done; it should not be affected by the way in which the boundaries of particular offences are drawn.”
Barber’s sentence was upheld; he will be eligible for parole on 13 July 2026 and his sentence will expire on 13 July 2028.
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