Reference no: EM133364355

Peter Bridgy is 20 and lives in Spotswood, in an inner-city suburb of Melbourne. He likes university and works part-time in an afterschool care program job from 4.00pm to 6.00pm four nights a week. Peter is in the second year of his Bachelor of Education and is starting to think about his placement so that he can be a teacher.

Peter's best friend is Annan who he has known since primary school. Annan decided in year 10 that he wanted to become an apprentice and got a job on a building site learning to be a plumber. Peter has noticed that Annan has started drinking and smoking cigarettes a lot more in the past six months and has also started to use marijuana on the weekend. Peter occasionally drinks and smokes but doesn't smoke marijuana as he is paranoid about getting caught and not being able to be a teacher.

Annan often teases him about his paranoia but doesn't pressure Peter into smoking with him. Peter and Annan were invited out to a 21st birthday party for their friend Samantha at a nightclub in the city on Saturday night. Peter had arranged to meet Annan at a pub earlier that was near Peter's house so that they could grab a bite to eat before going into the city together. Annan texted Peter that he would be late to meet him at the pub as he was required to stay back at work.

When Annan got there, Peter thought it appeared that he'd already had a few beers and smelled faintly like marijuana smoke. Annan had previously texted he wanted to borrow Peter's backpack to put his things into so Peter brought it to the pub and let him borrow it for the night.

Peter joked that Annan was getting started early and they both laughed and ordered some burgers and chips and a craft beer each. At 6.30pm Peter and Annan caught a taxi into the city and joined in the 21st party. When they got there a sizable group had already arrived and they wished Samantha a happy birthday.

Peter and Annan went separate ways during the party saying hello to different groups of friends and having fun. Peter noticed that Annan kept disappearing to the toilets every 30 minutes or so with his backpack but didn't think anything of it until he heard a conversation between some random party-goers.

It appeared that Annan was the go-to-person for marijuana at the party and word had got around that he was selling good but cheap grams. Peter went over to Annan and told him that people were commenting on him selling drugs.

Annan laughed and said it was 'ok, nothing to worry about it's just a bit of extra pocket money' and went to the bar and ordered a couple of more beers. 'Don't worry about it mate, it's all good' said Annan patting Peter on the back. Peter shrugged and said 'ok, just don't bring me into it' and Annan nodded his head and said, "Like I said, mate, all good". Annan left the backpack with Peter and went to dance for a while. He came back 20 minutes later and took the backpack.

More partygoers came and Peter realised that he knew some of the attendees from University, so he went over to see them. At 1am Peter wanted to go home and went to find Annan who he hadn't seen for a while. Someone pointed towards the toilets, so he walked into them in order to tell Annan he was catching a taxi home.

Annan was in the bathroom by himself looking at 10grams he had hidden in the bag. Peter walked over, took the bag and said "dude, you shouldn't have this in the open, anyone can walk in".

Just then two police officers walked into the bathroom on a routine check at the party and saw Peter with the grams and Annan looking at him. The police officers asked, 'whose drugs are those?' and pointed to the bag which Peter was holding. Annan blurted out 'not mine!' and as the officers were talking about needing to search them, Annan tried to run out of the bathroom, knocking over the officer as he did so. He ran halfway down the hall and tripped, which allowed the officer to catch him.

The police conducted a search of both Peter and Annan and found additional drugs in the backpack which Peter was also holding. The officer searching his bag noted that it had Peter's name on the inside of it. 'Is this your bag?' she asked, Peter nodded but told the police that the drugs were not his. When asked whose they were Peter looked at Annan who shook his head and was adamant that they were not his either. Upon searching Annan's pockets, the police found 1 gram of cannabis and a gram of methamphetamine, hidden in some foil.

Police arrested both of them and charged them both with possession of cannabis, Annan was also charged with resisting arrest as well as possession of methamphetamine. Both Peter and Annan are worried about being sent to jail.

Question 1

What court is most appropriate for Peter and why?
What court is most appropriate for Annan and why?
What sentencing considerations are open to the court for each offender?