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Public Prosecutor v Willie [2025] VUSC 241; Criminal Case 2472 of 2025 (5 September 2025)

SENTENCE

1. Mr Ronald Willie, you pleaded guilty and accepted the summary of facts relating to one charge of possession of 9.84 grams of cannabis contrary to subs. 2(62) of the Dangerous Drugs Act [CAP. 12]. You are convicted on your own plea and the admitted facts.
   
2. The maximum sentence for possession of dangerous drugs is 20 years imprisonment or a fine of VT100 million, or both.
   
3. On 1 August 2025, you were found to be in possession of cannabis materials inside your bag when the Police searched you at a football tournament at Neramb village at South East Malekula. You admitted the matter immediately, that the materials belonged to you and that you smoke cannabis. Testing of the materials confirmed it to be cannabis weighing 9.84 grams.
   
4. You are 25 years old. You are expecting your first child. You are a subsistence gardener. You have no prior convictions. You pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity.
   

End Sentence

5. Given the small quantity and the fact that it was for your personal use, with an early guilty plea and no prior convictions, I determine that a period of community work is the appropriate sentence.
   
6. Accordingly, I sentence you to 130 hours of community work to be completed within 12 months.
   
7. You have 14 days to appeal this sentence.
   
8. The drugs are to be destroyed.
   

DATED at Lakatoro, Malekula this 5^th day of September, 2025
BY THE COURT

.................................................
Justice Viran Molisa Trief