Former drug-using league professional Dean Scott avoids 501 deportation from Australia
He lived in New Zealand until the age of 19, before moving to Australia in 1985 to pursue a career in rugby league.
He went there on a scholarship with the Manly-Warringah league club in Sydney, but failed to make the first-grade team and moved to Queensland.
Scott then took up a contract with the Noosa Pirates league team on the Sunshine Coast.
'From the moment he arrived in Australia, he was using drugs, particularly marijuana and speed,' the Administrative Review Tribunal of Australia said in a recent decision.
Scott remained a user of recreational drugs but managed to function well for years, both as a family man and a business owner after quitting professional league.
'Rot set in' with meth
However, the tribunal said 'the rot set in' when he was introduced to methamphetamine.
After he appeared in court on drug-related charges in 2009, his marriage broke up and his relationship with his children suffered.
As his addiction spiralled out of control, he became involved in drug distribution.
In 2011, Scott was asked to leave the family home.
'He was no longer a reliable partner or parent, and he was a heavy and regular drug user,' the tribunal decision said.
In 2017, he was charged with trafficking in a dangerous drug, involvement in organised crime, six counts of perjury and several lesser drug-related offences.
He was granted bail and remained on bail in the community for more than five years before he was eventually convicted and jailed in 2023.
Because he was sent to prison for more than 12 months, his visa to be in Australia was cancelled on May 19, 2023, opening the way for his deportation under Section 501 of the Australian Migration Act.
Thousands of New Zealanders who have criminal records have been deported under this provision and are collectively known as '501s'.
Scott appealed against his visa revocation to the Australian Review Tribunal, which weighed up the factors for and against him being forced to leave Australia.
It noted that during those more than five years on bail, between being charged in 2017 and being convicted and imprisoned in 2023, Scott went and saw his former partner and asked for her help.
She said she would help, but only if he stopped using drugs. If he did not, the family would 'turn their back on him'.
The tribunal decision said this had a 'stunning effect' on him and he turned his life around.
Went 'cold turkey'
He immediately went 'cold turkey'. He told the tribunal he had not used illicit drugs since and even avoids painkillers such as paracetamol.
The tribunal said he was regularly drug-tested, and never failed a test.
His family and other people who know him are all 'certain' he has not touched drugs since 2017.
Scott began working up to 70 hours a week for an asphalt company and arranged for his ex to take over his finances, giving him a small amount to live on.
He reconnected with his children, one of whom drove him to a rehabilitation programme. A grandchild was born a few weeks before he went to prison.
'He had more than five years to commit further offences but did not do so,' the tribunal decision said.
'His behaviour since November 2017 has been exemplary.
'There was a trend of increasing seriousness in his criminal offending, but that trend came to an abrupt halt in 2017.'
Tribunal deputy president Damien O'Donovan said he was satisfied the risk of Scott engaging in further serious criminal behaviour was 'very low'.
O'Donovan said Scott has two adult children and two grandchildren to whom he is close.
'While he did everything he possibly could to ruin his relationship with them [his children] and their mother when he was addicted to drugs, the way in which he has gone about rebuilding those relationships is compelling,' O'Donovan said.
'The picture that emerges from the evidence is of a man with deep ties to the Australian community.
'Deportation would remove him from every important relationship he has in the world.'
The tribunal reversed the revocation of Scott's visa.
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