A drug smuggler who tried to import cocaine secreted inside a DVD player has had a year shaved off his jail sentence on appeal.
Osaro Peterson Ojielumhen, 39, will now only spend two-and-a-half years behind bars before he is eligible for release.
The Nigerian-born offender was nabbed after Customs became suspicious of a package containing a DVD player and speakers.
A look inside the DVD player uncovered 325.1 grams of cocaine, with a purity of 60.4 per cent, wrapped in black plastic.
The Australian Federal Police then set up an elaborate sting, swapping the drugs with an "inert substance" and installing a listening device inside the DVD player.
An AFP agent, posing as an Australia Post courier, then unsuccessfully tried to deliver the drugs to a Higgins home.
Police left a parcel collection card and waited for Ojielumhen and a co-offender to pick up the package from Kippax Post Office.
Officers tailed Ojielumhen and the other man to a Hughes home. Police then listened as the men unpacked the drugs and discussed the quality.
The pair were arrested and charged with attempting to possess a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug.
Ojielumhen pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years' jail, with a non-parole period of four years.
But the Court of Appeal judges – Justice Richard Refshauge, Justice Iain Ross and Acting Justice Stephen Walmsley – overturned the decision last week and set aside the original jail sentence.
The judges found the defence should not have offered the bench a time range of sentence options.
The prosecution, having heard the range, then sought the longest jail term and the sentencing judge followed the advice.
The Appeal Court found the process had been flawed.
“The proffering of a numerical sentencing range … is a practice which the High Court has subsequently said is wrong in principle and should cease,” the appeal judgment said.
“I am satisfied that the sentencing judge had regard to an irrelevant consideration, namely the Crown’s submission as to the appropriate head sentence.
“As a consequence of this error the sentencing discretion is reopened.”
The judges resentenced Ojielumhen to five years' jail, with a non-parole period of two-and-a-half years.
He will be eligible for release in July 2015.