A seriously ill man who sold illicit drugs in the hope of funding a life-saving overseas trip to undergo an organ transplant has been sent to jail for a year.
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Jimmy Ristovski was on a transplant waiting list and undergoing daily dialysis for a serious kidney disease when police raided his Cringila home on September 5, 2014, seizing $11,000 worth of heroin and ice and $80,000 in cash.
Ristovski, a pensioner, claimed the cash was a combination of life savings, gambling wins and donations from members of the community to fund a trip to Croatia, where he could undergo a kidney transplant almost immediately.
However, the family was only able to account for $39,000 by way of receipts and bank statements. That money was returned to them and the remaining amount permanently confiscated under proceeds of crime laws.
Ristovski was charged with a host of offences including two counts of drug supply, to which he pleaded guilty prior to his NSW District Court trial last year.
In a hand-written letter penned to the court on Friday, Ristovski said he deeply regretted his actions, including his own downward spiral into drug use to deal with post-traumatic stress from his time in the Yugoslavian army and his health problems.
“I wasn’t in the right headspace and I started smoking marijuana and heroin, which was the biggest mistake and I regret every second of it,” the 45-year-old father-of-two said.
“Most of the money [$80,000] was given to me as donations from my friends and family members.
“Some of the money I made from selling drugs for a short time...sometimes I went to the TAB and gambled to help with my stress, but I didn’t know it would only get worse.”
Judge Andrew Haesler was sympathetic towards Ristovski’s medical issues but said there was simply no excuse for selling drugs.
“While I accept the offence was not committed solely for greed, it can’t be put forward as an excuse that the sale of drugs was necessary to fund the operation,” he said.
“The bottom line is one waits on the waiting list, accepts one’s fate and doesn’t harm the community by supplying drugs.”
In handing down the full-time prison sentence, Judge Haesler acknowledged Ristovski would need to be kept in a jail that had hospital facilities to accommodate his need for daily dialysis.
Ristovski will be released in May 2018 to spend a further 16 months on parole.