UNIVERSITY of Newcastle-trained cancer care nurse Andrew Choi Holbrook just wanted "to help people as much as he could", so he had a novel explanation why he became a drug importer via Australia Post.
He saw a business colleague's drug deal and noticed the drug was of poor quality, he told a NSW District Court before his conviction in 2018 for 12 offences.
So he "became involved to have a better product".
Holbrook wanted "to get the user something safer to consume" because he "had a friend overdose in front of him", the court was told.
"His motivation was to try to help people as much as he could."
He started importing ecstasy and cocaine through the mail between April, 2014 - while still a University of Newcastle nursing student - until January, 2017 when Customs officers at Sydney intercepted one of his letters from overseas containing drugs.
For nearly three years Holbrook obtained illegal drugs through the dark web, used test kits to determine what they were cut with and their level of purity, and supplied a dealer.
When Australian Customs and Border Protection Services raided his home in January, 2017 they found ecstasy and cocaine in silver foil heat-sealed bags, $39,000 in $100 and $50 notes in a Nike shoe box and numerous Australia Post parcel bags. They also found notes written by Holbrook to himself that included "Don't ever think anyone will go to jail for you" and "Lawyer on retainer, once arrested keep mouth shut".
In 2018 Holbrook was sentenced to a maximum five years jail with a non-parole period of two years and nine months. He will be eligible for parole on June 13, 2021.
In August, 2017 the Nursing and Midwifery Council suspended his registration. Last week the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal accepted a NSW Health Care Complaints Commission submission that Holbrook's registration should be cancelled.
The HCCC said Holbrook's convictions, and his use of nursing training to test the drugs before selling them to a dealer, meant he was not a suitable person to be a registered nurse.
"Holbrook's convictions for importing a marketable quantity of illicit drugs, specifically ecstasy and cocaine, render him unfit in the public interest to practise as a nurse given the danger that these drugs may present for the mental and physical well-being and health of the public," the tribunal found.
"It is antithetical to the practice of the profession of nursing that a person involved in providing health services to the public should in their private life be involved in the importation of illicit drugs. It is conduct which is not consistent with the welfare of the public.
"None of the criminal offences took place in the course of his professional practice as a nurse. However, in our view the public interest can encompass the broader principles of the protection of the public as it relates to the reputation of the profession in the eyes of the public. Nurses are held in a position of trust in the community. The commission of these offences violated that trust."
Holbrook cannot seek a review of the deregistration until September, 2022.
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