Our client was a young man charged with attempted self-administration and possession of cocaine and assaulting police. Upon being questioned about being found with cocaine and about to inhale a line of the drug, he pushed past police and ran away, only to be identified days later. We negotiated with police to drop the self-administration charge, as it was essentially a ‘double-up’ with the possess charge, which was successful. At sentence, we explained our client’s behaviour for running away as borne of fear and suspicion that the plainclothes police who apprehended him were not in fact police officers. Explaining the effect of a conviction on our client’s ambition to become an admitted lawyer, the magistrate accepted our submission and placed our client on a good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded.

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