DRUGS IN 80 % OF CRIME: JUDGE

THE crimes of about 80 per cent of people appearing in the District Court
were linked in some way to drug addiction, a judge said yesterday.

Judge Peter Blaxell revealed the statistic when saying that the court had
to impose deterrent sentences on drug dealers because drugs, and in
particular heroin, were wreaking havoc on young people.

He made the comments when imposing a five-year jail sentence on student
Lean Foo Loo, 26, of Parkwood, who pleaded guilty to possessing a quantity
of heroin with intent to sell or supply.

Loo, who was doing a hospitality course at Bentley TAFE, has been in
custody since his arrest in Northbridge in February.

He was made eligible for parole by Judge Blaxell, who also declared Loo a
drug trafficker. This makes Loo's assets vulnerable to claim by the
prosecution.

The five-year jail term included concurrent sentences for breaching an
intensive supervision order imposed by the District Court last year on
charges of possessing cannabis and 30 LSD tablets. In February, Loo was
convicted of possessing ecstasy tablets.

The court was told that in September 1998 detectives raided a house in Como
where they found a quantity of heroin inside a bag in one of the bedrooms.

In a later interview, Loo admitted putting the bag in the room without the
knowledge of the occupants.

He said he was looking after the heroin for a friend. There was a total of
194g of heroin, between 46 per cent and 54 per cent pure.

Defence lawyer Paul O'Brien said Loo was born in Penang and came to
Australia aged 14.

Loo claimed he got the heroin from an Indonesian man he had met. He was to
get a small amount of the drug for his personal use for looking after it.
Loo then hid the heroin in the home of two foreign students.

Prosecutor Michael Judd said police had not been able to find the person
suggested by Loo as the owner of the heroin. It was not known whether the
person existed.

Judge Blaxell said he had to accept that Loo was not the prime dealer in
the drugs and was only storing them. But that still meant he was
facilitating the circulation of the drugs into the community.