A Nanaimo drug dealer serving a 15-year prison sentence has been granted a new review for bail while awaiting the outcome of his appeal.
Kien Trung Pham was sentenced March 4, following a number of charges, including being "the principal and directing mind of a mid- to upper-level drug trafficking operation dealing in methamphetamine, fentanyl, and cocaine."
Some of the offences stem from an incident in 2019 when nearly 7.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, worth as much as $750,000 at street level in Canada, were intercepted before they could be shipped to New Zealand, using the cover of a fictitious company called Essential Nutrition Wholesale. The drugs were packaged to look like muscle and tissue supplements. Twenty-eight grams of cocaine, six ounces of fentanyl and weapons were seized during a search of his apartment on Summerhill Place in 2019.
Pham filed an appeal of his convictions. His application for bail, while pending the outcome of his appeal, was dismissed, leading to a bail appeal.
In his initial bail hearing on March 22, Pham proposed to live with his mother and sister in their Nanaimo home. His sister and mother were prepared to act as sureties with $300,000 secured against their shared equity. Conditions proposed by defence counsel included house arrest, electronic monitoring and restrictions on computer use.
In an appeal bail hearing on Aug. 16, Justice Leonard Marchand determined the initial judge erred in principle by failing to meaningfully consider whether Pham’s three years of compliance with the terms of his previous release demonstrated he had the ability to be law abiding, and whether the restrictive conditions of bail Pham proposed would reduce the risk he posed to public safety to an acceptable level.
"If the judge erred in principle with respect to her public safety analysis, it is arguable that following a proper consideration of public safety issues, the scales may tip in favour of release on onerous conditions," Marchand wrote.
The judge granted Pham's application, giving his bail another review opportunity.
