Exposed: 10 SA street-level drug dealers sentenced in 2022
From social media sales pitches to explosive home-brews, some dodgy drug dealers filled the docks of South Australia’s courts in 2022. Here are their rap sheets.
Police & Courts
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South Australia has long held a reputation for odd, if not downright bizarre, criminal behaviour – and few offences, regardless of severity, lack that character.
It’s not surprising the state has its own unique spin on the illicit drug trade.
From social media sales pitches to truly explosive home-brews, here are some of the dodgy dealers and incompetent chemists who filled the docks of SA’s courts in 2022.
Brett Bonson
Apologetic drug dealer Brett Bonson had the misfortune of falling into the sights of police in 2019.
The 47-year-old and his Dry Creek property quickly became the subject of police surveillance with a telephone intercept placed on his phone.
As police listened, Bonson communicated with a man named “Jake” discussing the sourcing and sale of methamphetamine.
On May 23, 2019, texts between Bonson and Jake showed they were preparing to exchange a half ball, or 1.75g of methamphetamine.
A later text from Bonson apologised to Jake for having mislead him on the amount of meth, saying there was less than had initially been offered.
Six days later, on May 29, 2019, police searched Bonson’s home and found 1.75g of methamphetamine spread across five bags.
Also in the house was three ice pipes and a set of digital scales on which the drugs were found.
District Court Judge Anthony Allen accepted that Bonson’s drug trafficking stemmed from his own drug use which was itself caused by a traumatic childhood.
In 2015 Bonson was riding his motorbike when he was hit by a car and suffered significant injuries.
The ongoing impact of the crash also led to his increasing use of the drugs.
Bonson was jailed for two years, four months and 25 days with a mandatory non-parole period of one year, 11 months and two days.
Ned Kelly Voakes and Kathleen Joanne Kevill
When a Camden Park unit complex exploded on January 17, 2020, it didn’t take police long to discover the ignition point.
In the unit’s bathroom they found an electric hotplate, a frying pan, a cigarette lighter, 1.175kg of extremely cheap and poor quality cannabis, and a Butane canister.
It quickly became apparent that the unit’s badly-burned occupants – Ned Kelly Voakes and Kathleen Joanne Kevill – had tried to improve their stash in a most unsophisticated way.
Their first, and thankfully only, attempt at distilling cannabis oil had quite literally gone up in smoke, leaving them nursing injuries and facing prosecution.
Voakes, 29, was the first to face the District Court after pleading guilty to manufacturing a controlled drug.
The court heard Voakes was an “ounce a day” smoker who had been hooked on weed since the age of 18 and had never held a job.
Judge Liesl Kudelka spared him a prison cell but put him to work, ordering he spend 80 hours of his three-year suspended sentence performing community service.
A week later, Kevill – who missed her original sentencing date due to Covid-19 – received a two-year suspended sentence on account of her lesser role in the incident.
Judge Kudelka said Kevill, 38, had secured the duo’s premises, having been on a Housing SA waiting list since she was 18 and knew what Voakes had planned.
She noted Housing SA had since told Kevill she would not be receiving any further assistance.
Both were convicted.
Simon Caldwell and Renae O’Bryan
For years, Simon Caldwell had it all – a wife, two children and a managerial position with the company for whom he had worked for more than a decade.
Then, in 2014, Caldwell was suddenly retrenched and divorced by his wife who not only took the kids, but also emptied his bank accounts to fund her long-hidden gambling addiction.
Having lost his house and his car, Caldwell turned to methylamphetamine to ease the pain – and then realised he could also sell the drug to fund his new habit.
By October 2020 he and his new partner, former hairdresser Renae O’Bryan, 34, were players in Whyalla’s broader drug trade.
He ran the business from their home, complete with drugs, scales, pipes, bags and multiple phones on hand, while she handled all incoming sales inquiries.
Like Caldwell, O’Bryan also used the drug to escape her own personal problems.
A police bust – weeks after Caldwell, 47, sold half a gram of meth for $400 – ended their addiction-funding enterprise and saw them both arrested.
Despite also working as his father’s carer, Caldwell was in October denied both a suspended and a home detention sentence and jailed for three years and five months.
He will serve a 21-month non-parole period.
O’Bryan, who was sentenced a month earlier, was released on a two-year, $100 good behaviour bond.
Bayden Thomas Sweetman
Only six weeks before he was caught with 13.74g of methamphetamine, Sweetman was told by a magistrate he had been given his last chance.
The 27-year-old, whose rap sheet includes assault, theft, breaching bail, having offensive weapons and resisting arrest, was before the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court on March 31, 2022.
Magistrate Luke Davis accepted that Sweetman had given up drugs and was turning his life around.
Six weeks later, at 9.23pm on July 14, 2022, a police officer knocked on the window of Sweetman’s car to get his intention.
In the car was methamphetamine with a street value of up to $5000, 30ml of fantasy, $900 cash and four suboxone strips – a prescription drug used by people trying to kick drug dependency.
District Court Judge Simon Stretton accepted that Sweetman was heavily addicted to methamphetamine but was also dealing for profit.
“It is clear that the two things you have got to achieve in the future is get some qualifications while are you in custody so that when you get out, you can have gainful employment; and not get sucked back into drugs,” he said.
Sweetman was sentenced to three years in prison for the drug offending with a further six months added for breaching a good behaviour bond.
A non-parole period of two years and three months backdated to his arrest in July 2022.
Siegunn Alexander John Hayes
By October 2022, Siegunn Alexander John Hayes’ chances had run out – as had the patience of the District Court.
At one time a reasonably-promising scaffolding worker in Whyalla, Hayes had amassed a litany of drug convictions over the course of his 29 years.
Jailed in both 2017 and 2018 for selling methylamphetamine, Hayes was back before the court four years later for yet another spree of dealing.
Over four occasions in 2020 and 2021 – starting less than three months after his second prison sentence expired – police seized a total of 36.11 grams of meth from Hayes.
He had secreted it around his home, in his backpack and even his sunglasses case, along with cutting agents and $3540 in cash.
In sentencing, District Court Judge Paul Muscat said Hayes’ conduct “highlights the extremely addictive nature” of the drug, which he used as well as sold.
Hayes’ commercial enterprise wasn’t turning a profit, he noted – it was just enough to “purchase food and support your addiction”.
Judge Muscat also noted Hayes had taken steps to rehabilitate, but concluded: “Sentencing is not all about you.”
Hayes offending was too grave for anything other than prison, he said, adding that the street-level dealer qualified under the state’s serious repeat offender legislation.
He sentenced him to seven years and seven months’ jail with a harsher-than-normal six-year non-parole period, backdated to March 2021.
Daniel Lee Wilson
After being caught with more than 20g of methamphetamine and refusing police questions, Wilson thought it would be a good idea to cut off his home detention monitor and go on the run.
For five months Wilson was a menace on the road, being seen multiple times by police before speeding off.
The 29-year-old was first caught on March 9, 2020 at Dovar Gardens when police were watching a Nissan sitting in a backstreet.
Wilson was in a taxi that pulled up next to the Nissan.
Police watched as Wilson placed some bags in the back seat of the car.
When officers swooped they found 20.98g of low purity methamphetamine with a value of around $200.
Two mobile phones were seized and found to contain numerous messages discussing the sale of methamphetamine.
He was released on home detention bail on June 16, 2020 but breached his bail conditions on multiple occasions and, on October 8, cut off his home detention bracelet.
He was arrested again February 17, 2021 and charged with multiple driving offences, including driving at 160km/h in a 60km/h zone on January 2 that year.
District Court Judge Jane Schammer said Wilson’s offending was the product of severe drug addiction.
For all offences Wilson was jailed for four years, five months and 15 days with a non-parole period of two years and two months.
His licence was suspended for a mandatory five years from his release from custody.
Sam Salimie
A cannabis dealer who advertised on social media was arrested after police uncovered bags of the drug in his Brahma Lodge bedroom, kitchen and spare room.
Police raided Sam Salimie’s home in September 2020 after receiving a tip he was trafficking drugs.
They found 13 plastic resealable bags containing 29.1g of cannabis and 51 Clonazepam tablets in his bedroom and a 38.6g of cannabis in his kitchen. A further 1.972kg of cannabis in was in the spare room.
In sentencing, District Court Judge Anthony Allen said Salimie also had digital scales and tick lists. His mobile phone contained advertisements for cannabis which “appeared to be used in sales pages on Facebook”.
“I note you stood to profit in the order of $16,480 if the cannabis was sold in quarter ounces, or $14,705 if sold in ounces,” he said.
Judge Allen said Salimie began using drugs after suffering serious knee injury at 22 in a motorbike crash. He turned to cannabis, alcohol and gambling which led to a prior drug conviction in 2018.
Salimie again slid “back into anxiety and depression” and drug use when Covid hit and he lost his job and ability to go to the gym.
Judge Allen revoked a prior suspended sentence and, taking into account his new charges of trafficking in a controlled drug and trafficking in a commercial quantity of a controlled drug, jailed Salimie for a total five years and 11 days. He set a non-parole period of two years and nine months.
Kym Desmond Hammer
A drug dealer was caught in a police sting after one of his client’s on-sold methylamphetamine to an undercover cop.
Kym Desmond Hammer, 47, sold an “eight ball” of about 3.5g of methylamphetamine to a woman from his home in Murray Bridge for about $700 in early 2018. The woman – who was the subject of the sting – then on-sold the illicit drug to the undercover officer, who had paid her $850 for the deal to be done.
Police later searched Hammer’s house in November 2018 and found “indicia”of drug trafficking including $1500 cash hidden in a car and $780 in his wallet plus digital scales, glass pipes and small plastic resealable bags.
In sentencing, District Court Judge Michael Durrant said Hammer had turned to drugs and developed a “significant addiction” as a coping strategy after the loss of his brother to suicide. He said Hammer had endured a life “marred by loss and trauma” including the birth of a stillborn child. His home was also destroyed in a fire.
He said Hammer had a significant criminal history due to his drug abuse, including his latest offending for “street level” dealing, and must be sentenced as a serious repeat offender.
He jailed Hammer for four years and reviewed and extended his non-parole period to account for a prior sentence to three years and two months.
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