Queanbeyan Blues player Jomal Nchouki had 'raging habit' when trafficking cocaine

Jomal Nchouki, 27, gave evidence at an ACT Supreme Court sentence hearing on Wednesday as part of his bid to avoid a full-time jail term for drug trafficking.

The younger brother of former Canberra Nomads bikie boss Mohammed Nchouki had previously pleaded guilty to that charge, as well as a string of driving offences.

The younger Nchouki, a carpenter, was busted with about 400 grams of cocaine outside Bunnings Belconnen in April 2021.

The Theodore man was driving an unregistered and uninsured Nissan Navara with a trailer attached when he was stopped by police, whose search of the trailer uncovered multiple "separately packaged bags of cocaine", worth an estimated $120,000 to $160,000 if sold by the gram.

He took the stand on Wednesday, giving evidence that he started using cocaine and ecstasy after he quit a junior rugby league career with the Canberra Raiders at the age of 20.

His drug use "only increased" in the years that followed and "there was nothing I did to get off it".

Nchouki said he was "using 10 to 14 grams regularly, a week", and that he began funding what his barrister, Steven Whybrow, called a "raging habit" by selling cocaine.

He admitted he "was going to sell and use" the cocaine he was found with and told the court his drug use caused him to have health problems that landed him in hospital "once a month".

The 27-year-old said "getting arrested saved my life" because spending a week in custody, before he was granted bail, gave him "a lot of time to think", stop using drugs and seek to fix his relationship with his partner, who had just left him because of his drug use.

"It made me appreciate my family," He said.

Nchouki told the court he had received the cocaine he was found with from "a bloke on a job site", but he was not comfortable telling the court the identity of that person.

He said he would "always have those concerns" about repaying a debt he owed as a result of police seizing the cocaine, but he would "never again" sell drugs and had not made any profit from the cocaine he had previously sold.

Nchouki's partner, with whom he has two children, also gave evidence that she "knew he was taking drugs, but I did not know he was going to sell them".

She told the court Nchouki, with whom she has been for seven years, "is a different person now" and "he admits what he did was wrong".

Mr Whybrow argued Nchouki should be given an intensive correction order as a custodial sentence would be "detrimental to his rehabilitation, especially with his last name".

"It has clearly been a light bulb moment for this man," Mr Whybrow said, noting Nchouki had spent 15 months under strict bail conditions, likened to "home detention", without being accused of a breach.

Mr Whybrow also argued Nchouki should be given a "15 to 20 per cent discount" for pleading guilty, sparing the matter from going to trial, and showing remorse for his actions.

A prosecutor argued Nchouki should get a full-time jail sentence as "this was not simply a case of search and seizure".

He said police conducting surveillance had seen Nchouki trafficking cocaine for three weeks before his arrest.

Justice David Mossop adjourned the sentencing until August 30 to allow Nchouki to get ankle reconstruction surgery for a football injury before finalising the case.