Anam Haque avoids jail for supplying drugs to children after 'unreasonable delay'

Anam Haque, 22, gave reporters a thumbs-up as he walked from the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday with a series of good behaviour orders and $2000 in fines.

Justice David Mossop said he had dealt with the matter "unusually", voicing his disapproval at the "unreasonable delay" in Haque coming before the courts and identifying this as the reason he had not imposed a jail term.

Haque was only 18 at the time of his offending, over which he pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying a controlled drug to a child and single charges of drug trafficking, cocaine possession and unauthorised firearm possession.

Agreed facts show one of the Calwell man's victims was celebrating her 17th birthday at the unlikely venue of KidCity, a children's play centre in Mitchell, when Haque approached her in December 2017.

Haque knew this girl and told her he was a "plug" - a slang term meaning drug dealer - for a party being held there.

The offender subsequently left the party and hopped into his black Mercedes, in which he returned to pick up the birthday girl and one of her underage friends.

He drove them about 60 metres and parked outside a gym, where he sold the birthday girl two capsules of what he said was MDMA for $50.

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It was in fact ephylone, a psychoactive substance, which the birthday girl and her friend, who was also 17, consumed straight away.

Haque also gave the pair free LSD, and the girls immediately took that substance as well.

Not long after they went back to the party, the birthday girl's heart began racing and she felt "panicked". The other victim felt "disinhibited" by the drugs.

The effects continued into the next day, when the birthday girl vomited and behaved in such a bizarre way her mother took her to hospital.

A few days later, police obtained search warrants for Haque's home and car.

In his bedroom, officers found a traffickable quantity of ephylone, a small amount of cocaine, drug paraphernalia and a paintball marker.

LSD and an empty clip seal bag were also located in Haque's wallet.

A subsequent analysis of the teenager's electronic devices revealed he had been "carrying on a business" of drug trafficking for nearly six months, supplying relatively small quantities on a regular basis.

Haque's lawyer, Sam McLaughlin, said on Tuesday that his client had been interviewed by police in December 2017.

Despite this, the court heard Haque was not charged until early 2021.

Mr McLaughlin said the offender had been under "significant stress" for an inordinate length of time as a result of the unexplained delay in his case.

Nevertheless, he said, Haque had "progressed in an exemplary manner" and turned his attentions to running an e-commerce business and studying. The court heard Haque was also a reptile breeder.

"It appears my client has grown up and matured a lot over the last four years," Mr McLaughlin told the court.

Prosecutor Morgan Howe noted, however, a comment Haque had made to the author of a pre-sentence report, suggesting it reflected "some immaturity".

He said Haque had told the author that if the girls had not obtained drugs from him, they would have got them from someone else at the party.

While Mr Howe accepted Haque now seemed a low risk of reoffending, he drew attention to the seriousness with which supplying drugs to children was viewed by the community.

The prosecutor pointed to the fact the maximum penalty for drug supply doubled when the recipient of an illicit substance was a child.

Justice Mossop, who noted that both child victims in this case had almost been adults, ultimately described Haque's prospects for rehabilitation as "excellent".

He said the 22-year-old's adoption of a law-abiding lifestyle in the past four years suggested the offending period had merely been "a bad patch".

The good behaviour orders the judge imposed will run for 12 months, during which time Haque must complete 249 hours of community service.

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