New Year’s Day is all about fresh starts - but for a handful of punters at Field Day, getting busted by undercover cops for having MDMA didn’t feel like the best way to ring in 2016.

Some first-time offenders arrested for possessing drugs at Field Day have now been given criminal records and fines at Downing Centre Court, in a move that has surprised an experienced criminal law specialist.

Field Day attracted around 28,000 punters. By the end of the festival, 184 of them were arrested on drug offences; eight of those were charged with drug supply. On Monday in Sydney, Magistrate John Favretto took action against at least 10 of the 184 arrested at the New Year’s Day festival. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Favretto referred to drug-related deaths before handing out convictions. “These offences are too serious as people keep dying. It's got to stop,” Favretto said.

One of those convicted - now facing a $550 fine and a criminal record - is 20-year-old NSW man Brendan*. After a mate passed him a single MDMA cap at around 6pm, Brendan tells Hack he was spotted and “hauled off” by undercover police.

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Brendan was having “one of the best days” of his life before he was caught - Field Day was his first ever music festival. “I was just trying to find somewhere to put [the cap], because I hadn’t really been expecting it,” Brendan explains. But after being searched, given an on-the-spot court notice and being kicked out of the festival before the headline acts started to play, Brendan says the worst was yet to come.

“Telling my parents was probably the worst part about the whole situation... obviously they were very disappointed, and shocked that I'd even do it.”

20-year-old Joel* - who has also been fined and convicted for drug possession - had a similar experience at Field Day to Brendan. Joel tells Hack that a friend passed him a bag with 3 caps and some ketamine; an undercover cop caught him on his way to the bathroom as he walked out of the mosh pit.

“I felt a tap on the back from some random guy,” Joel explains, “and it was a police officer, he flicked out his badge, and said, I’ve seen you put something in your back pocket, we’re going to have to do a search on you.”

Not long after, Joel underwent a full search, was given a notice and the boot from Field Day.

18-year-old Sean* was also busted on Field Day but was still allowed to enjoy the festival - after he got done at the front gates.

Sean says undercover police officers found five caps of MDMA on him before he entered the festival; he’s also been handed a fine and a criminal conviction for drug possession.

“The cop told me that he didn’t want to ruin my day any more, so he would let me in, but wouldn’t let me in with the drugs,” Sean tells Hack.

Setting an example

Brendan, Joel and Sean all say they weren’t expecting to receive a criminal conviction on Monday. Each of them told Hack that Magistrate Favretto said he’d had a change of heart: deciding to hand out criminal convictions rather than section 10s. A section 10 allows a court to discharge you without receiving a criminal conviction, even when you’re found guilty.

“The magistrate went on about through his own personal experience, seeing too many people dying from drug use, and he’s seen people that he’s given the section 10, and they’ve ended up back in court... so it’s not working,” Brendan said.

Brendan says the Magistrate was “using us as an example” to deter people from taking illicit drugs.

Sean says two lawyers told him he’d most likely receive a Section 10, but it wasn’t the case. “He [Magistrate Favretto] pretty much told the people before me, that today’s the day he’s going to start changing his mind on drugs, because people have been dying.

The punishments come after at least four people aged 26 or under died at music festivals in Australia in 2015.

“So he started giving out convictions and fines, instead of giving section 10s,” Sean says. “I was pretty annoyed that he just started changing it [that day]. And I thought I was going to be in there getting a section 10, not getting any conviction on me, for one day’s mistake.”

Joel said Favretto was fed up. “He [Magistrate Favretto] said he’s sick of kids thinking they can get away with a section 10.”

Festivals on notice

Out of 212 people treated by medical staff at Field Day, one 23-year-old woman was hospitalised from a suspected drug overdose, but was released the following day.

The mass drug-related arrests and one hospitalisation sparked a strong reaction from NSW Minister for Police Troy Grant, who said music festivals could be shut down unless organisers took better care of their punters. “Ultimately, if the events continue to cause deaths, well the festivals will write their own scripts,” Grant said earlier this month.

At the time, manager for Fuzzy - the organiser of Field Day, Listen Out and Harbour Life - told Hack that festivals already underwent a “rigorous approval process” to get off the ground, and that health and safety of festival-goers was “always a priority”.

The NSW Government was then urged to launch an inquiry into drug deaths at festivals, rather than ban events altogether.

Earlier this month, Troy Grant said the NSW Government planned to look into how festivals are run and kept safe for punters.

Today a spokeswoman for Deputy Premier and Minister for Police Troy Grant told Hack the NSW Government is “reviewing the risk management for each event held on public land, including the process for granting event permits, regulation and security.”

“All high risk events held on state land in the next three months are currently being reviewed.”

Sentencing shouldn’t set a precedent

Experienced criminal law specialist Greg Gould says he was surprised to hear Magistrate Favretto handed out criminal convictions instead of section 10s to first-time offenders, given the “small amount of drugs” involved. Gould says media coverage and public pressure around drug deaths at festivals could have influenced his decision.

“I believe he [Magistrate Favretto] may have reacted to public pressure which if he did, is not really appropriate,” Greg Gould says.

“A sentencing shouldn’t be a function of public opinion at a particular time.

“However magistrates have discretion to apply sentencing laws as they see fit.”

Gould says being arrested, charged and given a section 10 - “a public denunciation of your conduct” - is typically enough of a deterrent for people tempted to act outside the law.

“It would be disheartening to think that this would be used as a precedent [for more criminal convictions],” Gould says.

“I’m not convinced at all that the thousands of young adults who turn up at the next festival won’t take drugs [because of this].”

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Would a criminal record stop you from doing drugs?

At the very least, receiving a criminal conviction has made Brendan, Joel and Sean think about their drug-taking habits.

For Brendan, it means never touching drugs again.

“I personally will never use [drugs] again after that. I hope it deters people from using it so they don’t get the same punishment as me, I guess.”

Sean says he won’t be taking drugs at a festival ever again, but the conviction doesn’t mean he’ll stop taking drugs altogether. He says he’ll think more about where and when he takes drugs next time.

For Joel, the conviction means he’ll slow down, but he won’t stop taking drugs.

“I’ll still have fun, and have one or two here or there. I’m not going to stop just because I got caught with them, I just enjoy it too much. I know that I’m not going to hurt myself. I know where I get them from, and I know what they do to you.”

But Joel and Sean say there would have been thousands of others in the same situation as them on Field Day - they were just the ones who happened to be caught.

Sean reckons “90%” of Field Day punters took drugs, and that other festivals would have similarly high rates.

“How many people do they bust at Stereosonic? 100 people or something? There’s probably 60,000 people there and I can guarantee you more than half of them would have had something on them,” Sean says.

“I can guarantee, at least 85 to 90% of people that you see there would be on something,” Joel says.

“It’s annoying that I got charged, when hundreds of people before me got off with section 10s...that does make me angry.”

“But if I’m the one that’s got to get in trouble to save some lives later, I’m alright with that.”

*names have been changed