Drug dealer Daniel Robert Weekes jailed for trafficking, fabricating evidence after police crack fishing gear code
An Adelaide drug trafficker’s secret code he used over the phone to organise a clandestine ice operation has been revealed in court.
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An Adelaide trafficker who used a code based on fishing gear to discuss the drug ice had his partner buy rods and reels and “make them look used” after his arrest, a court has heard.
Daniel Robert Weekes, 38, was granted home detention bail by the Supreme Court after his partner, Stevie-Lee Marjorie Bassett, submitted photographs purportedly of his equipment collection.
Weekes, a “street-level drug dealer”, was arrested in July 2019 after telephone intercepts revealed he trafficked ice seven times between November 2018 and May 2018.
The phone calls revealed a code that referred to fishing, fishing rods and reels was used to discuss the trafficking operation.
At his home, police found two mobile phones, nearly $1000 cash, digital scales, plastic resealable bags, rubber bands and an ice pipe.
Weekes was refused bail by a magistrate but appealed the decision in the Supreme Court, where his lawyer was asked whether he had a fishing equipment business or could produce receipts for gear to back up his claim.
Sentencing him in the District Court, Judge Sophie David said Weekes made 66 calls from behind bars to Bassett in the 11 days after the application was adjourned.
“In those calls you discussed the details of the bail review and repeatedly instructed Ms Bassett to buy fishing rods and reels and, in your words, to make them look used,” the judge said in published remarks.
“You told her not to make it look too staged.”
Bassett swore an affidavit that contained photos of Weekes’ purported fishing rod and reel collection before a judge released him on home detention bail.
“Home detention bail was granted on the basis that the prosecution case was not strong, at least in part, because of the affidavit sworn by you, Ms Basset,” Judge David said.
The couple, who have since broken up, were arrested in October after prosecutors obtained a receipt from retailer Boating Camping Fishing for $443 worth of fishing equipment.
The card used in the transaction was in Bassett‘s name and CCTV showed her making the purchases after the bail review was heard.
Weekes pleaded guilty to seven counts of trafficking in a controlled drug, fabricating evidence and knowingly using fabricated evidence.
Judge David said Weekes was involved in a calculated and organised syndicate, but she accepted he trafficked “primarily to defray the cost of your own significant drug addiction”.
“You became involved in a syndicate which was calculated and organised, distributing methylamphetamine in the southern suburbs of Adelaide,” she said.
The judge said Weekes’ actions involving fabricated evidence were serious and undermined the integrity of the criminal justice system.
“You acted in a calculated way to influence the outcome of the bail review,” she said.
“Your conduct did, in fact, influence the outcome of those proceedings, resulting in you being released on home detention bail for 49 days.”
He was sentenced to five years and five months behind bars with a non-parole period of four years and three months, which was backdated to September last year.
Bassett, 37, pleaded guilty to fabricating evidence with the intention to influence the outcome of judicial proceedings.
In sentencing, Judge David said Bassett was clearly “under a considerable amount of pressure” from Weekes when she committed the offence.
“His conduct during those phone calls was controlling and, in some calls, overbearing and nasty,” she said.
Bassett was sentenced to nine months and 18 days, but the sentence was wholly suspended on a 12-month good behaviour bond.
Originally published as Drug dealer Daniel Robert Weekes jailed for trafficking, fabricating evidence after police crack fishing gear code