By MICHELLE HERBISON
A CONVICTED heroin trafficker caught with three others at Geelong’s Chifley Hotel in January has won bail.
Magistrate Ann McGarvie gave “one more chance” to three-time convicted heroin trafficker Nam Deng, 25, of 56 Station St, St Albans, after he spent 97 days in custody.
Mr Deng was arrested on 11 January after hotel staff found two bags of heroin and a Taser left behind in a room he occupied with his girlfriend, his sister, her partner and their baby, police informant Sergeant Michael Ryan told the court.
Mr Deng was in the drivers’ seat of a car when police apprehended him and located 10.5g of heroin behind him on the back seat, Sgt Ryan said.
Han Nguyen, Vi Deng and Chueng Sen, also known as Simon Kirton, received bail but Ms McGarvie refused Mr Deng’s previous bail application.
Sgt Ryan told the court from the witness box that police seized mobile phones from the accused, providing further evidence of drug trafficking.
Sgt Ryan believed Mr Deng would return to drug trafficking “without a shadow of a doubt” if bailed.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that their visit to Geelong was solely for the purpose of trafficking.”
Mr Deng’s father, Anh Vu Deng, said he would “talk with and look after” his son if bailed to live with him.
“If I knock on the door and he’s not in his room when he’s not allowed to go out I’ll call the police and let them know he’s not there.”
Defence lawyer John Buxton, for Mr Deng, said his client was under a drug treatment order and had psychiatric issues untreated during his custody.
“He’s not going to be subject to the same sort of cravings now that he would have been if he’d been in for only a week or a month.”
Ms McGarvie imposed bail conditions including an 8pm to 8am curfew, surrender of valid passports, three-times weekly reporting to a police station and that Mr Deng not associate with the two co-accused yet to be sentenced.
Police Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Siobhan Daly said Mr Deng had previously breached multiple court orders.
