Warrnambool meth dealer has two months months slashed off his jail sentence on appeal

Ben Arundell, 32, was sentenced in Warrnambool Magistrates Court in May to 14 months' jail after pleading guilty to offences, including trafficking methamphetamine.

A single charge of possessing a prohibited weapon was withdrawn.

The court heard that in November 2020, a police drug raid was executed at a south-west property and Arundell was found in possession of 28 grams of methamphetamine and $3700 cash suspected of being the proceeds of crime.

The quantity of drugs was nine times the amount needed to be charged with trafficking methamphetamine.

In sentencing, the magistrate said the offending was an example of "significant trafficking".

"It's not just a gram here or there," he said.

The magistrate said Arundell was also found in possession of weapons and cash and had not long been released from jail.

During an appeal hearing this week lawyer Ashlea Patterson told the Warrnambool County Court she feared the magistrate had considered a firearm-related offence when sentencing her client, despite the charge being withdrawn.

The court heard the police summary stated an imitation firearm, being a gel blaster, was located at Arundell's property and the reference may have failed to be redacted at the time of the man's plea in the magistrates' court.

The firearm-related charge was withdrawn after Arundell was able to prove it belonged to someone else at the property, Ms Patterson said.

"(The firearm) may have been taken into account when it shouldn't have been," she said.

Ms Patterson said her client had served over 245 days in custody on remand - an experience he found "particularly burdensome" during the COVID-19 pandemic and because of his ill mental health.

Judge Anne Hassan said she was concerned there was "an improper or irrelevant consideration taken into account in sentencing" and applied for a "very modest reduction" in sentence.

Arundell was re-sentenced to 12 months' jail.

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