Bali Nine member Scott Rush sentenced for historical offences

Bali Nine drug smuggler Scott Rush has been sentenced by a Queensland court for crimes committed months before he was arrested in 2005.

Infamous Bali Nine drug smuggler Scott Rush has been sentenced by a Queensland court for crimes committed months before he was arrested in 2005 and jailed for almost 20 years in an Indonesian prison.

A fortnight after returning to Australia, Rush, now 39, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday to charges of fraud, receiving tainted property and entering premises, all committed when he was 19.

The high-profile prisoner of almost two decades surrendered himself to Queensland police on Monday morning to deal with the historical charges.

“I thought the name was familiar but I didn’t make the connection,” Magistrate Patricia Kirkman-Scroope said when it was explained why she’d been asked to deal with two-decade old charges in a court meant for overnight arrests.

Rush’s solicitor Terry Fisher, consultant at Fisher Dore Lawyers, told the court on Monday that his client was committed to integrating himself back into society and “to make himself a worthwhile contributor to society”.

“He was 19 years of age when he went to Bali, he was apprehended at the Bali Airport with 1.3 kilograms as a drug courier,” he said.

“He was not the main perpetrator. He was then, effectively, had served 20 years in jail. He did face the death penalty from 2006 to 2011 that was subsequently reduced to life imprisonment. Two of the members of the Bali nine were shot by a firing squad, the two main ringleaders.”

Mr Fisher said his client had undergone intensive counselling in Indonesian jail and had self-improvement courses.

“Clearly, over a period of 20 years, you have plenty of time to do that. He has insight and remorse into his previous conduct, and what he’s committed to now is to being reintegrated into Australian society,” Mr Fisher said.

Scott Rush with parents Lee and Christine Rush (right) outside Brisbane watch-house on Monday. Picture: Richard Walker

Rush pleaded guilty to seven counts of enter dwelling related to various properties around Brisbane where he stole cash, a hearing aid, a Nintendo GameBoy, Nokia mobile phones, and jewellery in March 2005.

He pleaded guilty to an enter premises and unlawful use of a motor vehicle namely a Toyota sedan in the same month.

He pleaded guilty to twice defrauding Cash Converters of cash in late 2004 as well as receiving stolen property and failing to appear in court in April 2005.

Most of the offences were committed while Rush was subject to a number of suspended sentences ranging from one month to two months’ jail that had been handed down at Inala Magistrates Court, which no longer exists, in January 2005.

Rush’s parents Christine and Lee were in court to support their son, who will live with them.

Mr Fisher recalled the story of Mr Rush unwittingly becoming the architect of his son’s jailing in Indonesia.

“His father had reported into the federal police that he was suspicious of something going to happen, and the federal police said they would speak to my client to advise him that he was under surveillance, to stop him getting involved in this,” he said.

“What happened was they didn’t do that. And before he left for Indonesia, the AFP tipped off Indonesian authorities to the Australians being there, knowing full well it was a death-penalty sentence.”

Rush’s charges spoke of a then-19-year-old Brisbane resident in the grip of a drug addiction which months later landed him in an Indonesian jail cell facing a death sentence for trying to smuggle heroin out of the tropical archipelago.

Scott Rush in custody in Bali in 2005

That was until a diplomatic coup hatched by the Albanese government saw the five remaining Bali Nine prisoners transferred to Australia on humanitarian grounds in mid-December.

It was agreed to by Indonesia as long as the five men continued their rehabilitation efforts on home soil.

Rush, Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj and Martin Stephens arrived back in Australia on December 15.

They along with ring leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and fellow drug mules Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen and Renae Lawrence had attempted to smuggle 8.7kg of heroin, worth roughly $4m, out of Indonesia and into Australia in April 2005.

Indonesian police arrested the group, some of whom were found with packages of heroin strapped to their bodies.

Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death and executed in 2015.

Nguyen died from stomach cancer in 2018 while serving his life sentence, and Lawrence was released after serving 13 years.

Mr Fisher requested his client be convicted and not further punished given the passage of time and the principle of totality.

Prosecutor Senior Constable Matthew Bach agreed with that submission.

Ms Kirkman-Scroope noted Rush had a significant drug habit at the time and had undergone extensive rehabilitation in Indonesia.

She convicted but did not further punish Scott on the 13 offences.

She recorded convictions and extended the operation period of his historical suspended sentences by two months.

“All right, thank you Mr Rush, all the best with your future endeavours,” she said.

“Thank you your honour,” Rush responded.

Scott Rush with parents Lee and Christine Rush outside Brisbane watch-house on Monday. Picture: Richard Walker

Scott Rush in custody in Bali in 2005

Originally published as Bali Nine member Scott Rush sentenced for historical offences