Periodic detention for drug role

Press, 17 October 1986, Page 7

Periodic detention for drug role

A woman, who played a minor role in the Darcy Yee drug conspiracy because of the involvement of her de facto husband, was sentenced to six months periodic detention by Mr Justice Holland in the High Court yesterday. Vivienne Michelle Clarke, aged 32, a waitress, had pleaded guilty in the District Court to a charge of supplying opium, a class B drug. Clarke was arrested as a result of the bugging of telephone calls to a house in St John’s Road where

she lived. During the time the calls were monitored by the police, about a dozen persons went there to purchase opium, according to the police statement. Mr Stan Barker for Clarke said that a number of addicts had obtained prescribed legal supplies of opium supplied to Yee and sold to another person. Clarke, who was involved through her de facto husband, received no personal gain, and only a small quantity of opium was involved.

Clarke had no previous convictions, and the probation officer said that she was not likely to reoffend. A suspended sentence would be appropriate, Mr Barker submitted. Mr Justice Holland said that the charge carried a maximum term of 14 years imprisonment. Personal considerations could have very little weight when an offender dealt with a class A or B drug. However, Clarke was a first offender and had pleaded guilty at an early stage.

She had a very favourable probation report and he accepted that she would not have offended but for her association with her de facto husband, for whom she had acted as an agent. She would be given a chance, his Honour said. Darcy Yee, aged 44, a self-employed salesman, was jailed for five years, fined $lO,OOO and had $4300 in drug money confiscated on October 1 when he appeared for sentence on a charge of conspiring with three others to supply opium.