A young woman who confessed to playing a major "day-to-day" role in a sophisticated party drug ring allegedly run by her boyfriend Joel Westman and his twin brother Flinn has had her jail sentence overturned on appeal.
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Nikita Campbell was originally sentenced to 15 months' jail with a non-parole period of 7 months in Wollongong Local Court last month after the magistrate refused her request to serve an intensive corrections order in the community in lieu of full-time jail.
Campbell immediately lodged an appeal and was released on bail at the time.
On Friday, defence lawyer Graeme Morrison noted another person involved in the syndicate, the twins' brother Daniel Westman, had avoided jail time when sentenced in the local court and received a lengthy ICO.
He asked that Campbell to receive a similar sentence under the legal principle of parity, noting the 21-year-old Coniston woman had "engaged in meaningful rehabilitation and recovery" since her arrest.
"The community is better served by her being at liberty to continue her rehabilitation," Mr Morrison said.
Judge Andrew Haesler on Friday agreed to scrap Campbell's jail time and imposed a 15-month ICO instead to bring the sentence in line with that given to Daniel Westman.
"I believe she would have a justifiable sense of grievance if she wasn't allowed the opportunity of an ICO," he said, citing the parity principle.
A set of agreed facts tendered to the court reveal police spent months secretly watching and listening as Campbell helped the Westman twins deal drugs from the Coniston home she shared with the pair.
Police said Campbell was unemployed but lived a life well beyond her meagre financial income, attributing her apparent wealth to the successful but illegal business she helped run.
Police will allege the Westman brothers were the kingpins behind the "sophisticated, well-planned and meticulously organised" criminal syndicate, which was allegedly responsible for the supply of cocaine and ecstasy throughout the Illawarra in mid-2019.
Campbell, the boyfriend of Joel, was one of the group's "key personnel" who would often weigh and bag the drugs inside the home, as well as count the profits.
She also participated in some of the drugs supplies, police said.
Court documents said on July 5, police recorded Campbell sitting at the dining table inside the Westmans' Wonson Avenue home weighing out drugs to give to one of the group's alleged drug runners, Shaun Lane.
The following day, Campbell was recorded sitting at the kitchen table with Joel counting out between $80,000 and $100,000 in cash.
Campbell was also recorded cutting bagging drugs for another dealer, David Ognenovski, later that night.
Police recorded Campbell's involvement in another deal on July 17 in which 14 grams of MDMA is sold to Lane.
Campbell was arrested just before dawn on August 16 after police carried out a series of sweeping raids on properties across the Illawarra.
She agreed to be interviewed by detectives but refused to answer their questions.
Campbell was granted strict conditional bail in court the following day but banned from contacting her boyfriend but that condition has since been relaxed to allow the pair phone contact.
She pleaded guilty to three counts of drug supply and one count of participating in a criminal group during a court appearance in May.
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