PROSECUTORS have backflipped on their refusal to seek a specialist drug report after the decision put question marks over a Tamworth case that was poised to resolve.
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Adam John Wilkins was arrested more than a year ago and had his case delayed again in Tamworth Local Court this week.
The court heard a specialist report examining the "purity of the drug" allegedly uncovered during a raid in Oxley Vale, last year, was now being obtained by prosecutors from the DPP, just two weeks after they said it wouldn't be.
"Your Honour, this matter was due to resolve, there was an issue relating to the facts," DPP solicitor Ms Mulvaney told the court.
She said the matter became unlikely to resolve when the DPP revealed the report wouldn't be sought, which Wilkins' Aboriginal Legal Service solicitor said at the time was the "single most important" factor in the case.
"Now, because of that, approval was then given to obtain the report," Ms Mulvaney said.
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Magistrate Julie Soars slammed the lengthy delays in the case, and threatened to contact the Director of Prosecutions for "unacceptable" delays.
Ms Soars agreed to adjourn the matter for a month, but said it had been marked must proceed on a number of occasions and was outside the time standards to be committed to the district court for trial or sentence.
"Of course it has an impact on the court," Ms Soars said.
"It's been unacceptably delayed."
She said the commercial decision to get a report was cheaper than running a trial and was something the DPP could have considered earlier.
Wilkins, aged in his 40s, has not been required to enter a plea to the charge of manufacturing a prohibited drug in a large commercial quantity, which can carry life in jail, if convicted.
He faces two drug supply charges; as well as one related and one back-up allegation.
His bail was continued.
Wilkins was arrested after the house search on January 28, last year.
Police allegedly uncovered a dimethyltryptamine laboratory and called in specialist officers and the Hazmat team to help dismantle it, as well as items consistent with drug supply.
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Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald. Email: afalkenmire@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald. Email: afalkenmire@austcommunitymedia.com.au
