Katie Matilda Yates, 19, faces court on six charges

A 19-year-old support worker student’s Snapchat side-hustle has landed her in court after a raid uncovered her underground business.

A Bundaberg woman has been sentenced after police uncovered an underground vape and nicotine business she had been running via Snapchat.

Katie Matilda Yates, 19, pleaded guilty to all 6 charges before the court including 1 x possessing restricted medicines, 1 x supplying medicines, 1 x possess tainted property, 1 producing dangerous drugs and 2 x possessing dangerous drugs.

Police Prosecutor Sergeant Dean Burgess told the court police conducted a search warrant at the defendant’s Bourbong Street address on November 23.

Police seized two 1-metre high cannabis plants, 0.75g of cocaine, 3 diazepam tablets, $1555 in tainted currency, $1380 in her bedside table, 131 boxes of nicotine vapes containing 10 vapes in each box, 48 further boxes of nicotine vapes and a mobile phone.

The court heard someone else ordered $30,000 worth of stock over three months for Yates who started selling the vapes and nicotine for between $10-$20 each and she would keep the profits.

She used Snapchat to sell the vapes in underground cash transactions and money transactions through the Beem It app and had 15 regular customers but never saw buyers in person.

The $1380 located in her wallet was entirely from the sales of vapes and nicotine over the past month.

The court further heard Yates told Police the cannabis was for personal use, the cocaine was hers leftover from a party and the diazepam tablets were for her boyfriend but she didn’t have a script for them.

Lawyer Lavonda Molloy told the court Yates reached year 10 and completed a certificate III in beauty and was currently undertaking training to qualify as a support worker.

“As part of her final qualifications to which she was in the practical phase completing her competency work, she is required to undergo background checks before the qualification registration,” Ms Molloy said

“In all circumstances, she made full admissions to police, she fully co-operated with the authorities during the search warrant, she’s a very young woman and she has not been before the courts before.”

Magistrate Trinity McGarvie reminded Yates how serious her charges were, including the offence of supplying nicotine which has a maximum penalty of $69,000.

Ms McGarvie took into account Yates had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and fully co-operated with police.

“You’re trying to obtain an education so that you can contribute to the community in a meaningful way as a support worker, I have regard to all of those features,” Ms McGarvie said.

Yates received a $1250 fine for tainted currency, drug possession and drug production, a $750 fine for possessing nicotine and a $2000 fine for supplying nicotine, referred to SPER.

A conviction was not recorded.