NEWCASTLE sailor Craig Lembke was duped into importing 700 kilograms of cocaine on board a yacht from Tahiti to Toronto by members of an international drug syndicate.
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He was lied to, kept in the dark and deceived. To begin with. But once he had made the journey with the illicit cargo, some 6500 kilometres by sea, the promise of a $500,000 pay-day to ferry another syndicate member about 150 metres out to the yacht while it was moored on Lake Macquarie proved too enticing to pass up.
He was facing a potential life sentence, but Lembke, now 50, has been spared a crushing jail term after Judge Jonathan Priestley, SC, found his involvement in the cocaine importation plot was "minimal" and limited to the final 24 hours before his arrest. He was jailed on Friday in Coffs Harbour District Court for a maximum of nine years, with a non-parole period of six years, a sentence much shorter even than that given to two other syndicate members who received massive discounts for pleading guilty and giving evidence against Lembke at his trial.
Lembke - who was represented by Public Defender Peter Krisenthal - will be eligible for parole in November, 2023. After he was sentenced, Lembke's solicitor, Mark Ramsland, released a statement on his client's behalf, saying the sailor and musician maintained his innocence, intended to appeal and was grateful for the support of his friends and family.
"Although Craig Lembke was found guilty by a jury on 23 October, 2019, he continues to maintain his innocence," Mr Ramsland said in a statement provided to the Newcastle Herald. "Mr Lembke will appeal the verdict. He maintains that he did not know or suspect that on board the Skarabej, which he sailed back from Tahiti in September and October 2017, was hidden the cocaine which was ultimately found by authorities. His only aim was to sail the boat back from Tahiti to Australia in what he described as the 'adventure of a lifetime'. He will do everything within his power to have his case reviewed by the Court of Criminal Appeal and is confident that he will be acquitted of the charge. He has always denied that he was involved in any criminal activity and will continue to do so. In the meantime, he wishes to thank his family, friends and supporters which have been many. Whilst totally devastated by the verdict he feels confident justice will ultimately be reached in his case."
After a five-week trial in Newcastle District Court last year, Lembke was found guilty of importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, which carries a maximum of life in jail. Lembke admitted to sailing the 13-metre Skarabej from Papeete to Toronto, but denied knowing about the illicit cargo on board.
Drug importation has an extended definition, and the prosecution had said Lembke was guilty because he either knew about the importation plot before he agreed to sail the catamaran from Tahiti to Toronto or because he ferried another syndicate member out to the boat - after it had arrived at Lake Macquarie and after another syndicate member had offered him an additional $500,000 - so the syndicate member could cut holes in the boat and remove the drugs secreted in the hull.
The jury believed Lembke knew about the plot at some point during his involvement with the Skarabej. But exactly when he knew or when he formed the requisite state of awareness, either the day before his arrest or six weeks earlier, remained in dispute - with the prosecution and defence worlds apart at a sentence hearing last month.
Late on Friday afternoon, via audio visual link from Coffs Harbour District Court, Judge Priestley made the crucial determination, siding with the defence about when Lembke knew about the plot.
Judge Priestley described as "untruthful" the evidence of the Australian syndicate co-ordinator who helped convict Lembke and said he was not satisfied Lembke was offered $500,000 to complete the importation prior to leaving for Tahiti.
"The true involvement of the offender is being aware of what was happening once he had been offered the $500,000 and then going along with it thereafter," he said. "On any measure this is a minimal involvement."
Judge Priestley considered a number of comparative cases when determining the sentence to impose.
"Not one of these offenders had a role comparable to the offender in our present case in its minimal nature," he said. "None of them was involved for only 24 hours and all of them performed a role of far greater significance than using a small boat to take another participant some few hundred metres offshore."
