Neil Donnelly spared jail after selling 50g of methamphetamine to undercover police officers in Port Broughton

A Port Broughton man accused of running a “significant drug business” in the country town has been sentenced after becoming ensnared in an undercover operation.

A Port Broughton man accused of running a “significant drug business” in the country town has been spared jail after he became ensnared in an undercover police sting.

Neil Donnelly, 68, was charged with and pleaded guilty to ten counts of trafficking methamphetamine in the space of just over a month between January 22 and February 25, 2022.

During sentencing submissions last month District Court Auxiliary Judge Gordon Barrett heard that two undercover officers had met Donnelly when he was helping change a woman’s flat tyre.

He invited them to his house and said the officers saw a glass pipe on a table in a back room and asked if Donnelly could source them methamphetamine.

Donnelly, who was a heavy user of the drug in the aftermath of a medical incident in which he was given a 50/50 chance of surviving, agreed.

Drug trafficker Neil Donnelly has been spared jail for selling methamphetamine to undercover police officers on five different occasions. Picture: Facebook

On five occasions over the next month he supplied the undercover police officers with increasing quantities of methamphetamine.

James Noblett, for Donnelly, said during the sentencing submissions that the result of the five separate sales to the undercover officers his client was categorised as a serious repeat offender.

During sentencing on Thursday, Judge Barrett said Donnelly had initially sold .41g to the officers on January 22.

When the officers were at the home an unidentified man and woman arrived and bought separate quantities of the drug.

The amounts Donnelly was selling to the officers increased with 28.1g of the drug sold for $8500 on February 25.

The officers returned later that day and arrested Donnelly who by that point had sold them a total of 50.92g of the drug.

Police recovered $12,000 from Donnelly’s home, the majority of which had been given to him by the undercover officers earlier that day.

Cross examining Donnelly during sentencing submissions a prosecutor accused the former diesel mechanic of maintaining “quite a significant drug business in Port Broughton”.

Donnelly denied the accusation, saying he sold small quantities to some friends and had become sucked into selling larger amounts by the police officers.

After he was arrested Donnelly spent 10 days in custody before being released on bail during which he did not take any drugs.

Since then he has not taken drugs after being told by his doctor that any more methamphetamine would likely be a death sentence.

Judge Barrett sentenced Donnelly to four years, one month and 16 days in prison with a non-parole period of two years and six months.

Because of Donnelly’s early guilty plea, previous ill health and rehabilitation, Judge Barrett suspended the sentence.