Jesse Steven Moras in court for drug, ammunition charges

An unemployed Bundaberg crim’s nap was interrupted when police arrived at his home, where they found a number of worrying items, some of which were blamed on visiting “crackheads”.

Jesse Steven Moras.

When police arrived to carry out a search warrant at Jesse Steven Moras’s Bundaberg home, they would find the unemployed dad snoozing.

But what else they found would land the repeat offender in custody.

During the search, which was carried out on June 23, 2022, police found meth, a medication usually prescribed for serious mental health conditions and rounds of ammunition.

Officers also found a Dell laptop with a Bundaberg Regional Council sticker attached to it.

Just two days later, police stopped Moras, who was riding an e-scooter, and found he had a bag containing two points of meth inside his phone cover.

On August 9, police returned to Moras’s home to carry out another search warrant and discovered a glass pipe, a shotgun round with a “large amount of ammunition” and scales.

Of particular concern, the court heard, was a gel blaster which looked like a glock.

The court heard Moras co-operated with police and admitted using meth, but told officers he injected it and the pipe wasn’t his.

Bundaberg Court House.

A letter to the court from Moras’s partner, who is pregnant with his fourth child, stated that “crackheads” tended to frequent the couple’s home so it could have come to be there because of that.

Lawyer Matt Maloy told the court his 32-year-old client, who walked with a limp following a serious car crash, had been offered bricklaying work with his brother.

Mr Maloy told the court his client’s criminal history was longer than it was serious.

“There’s an awful lot of low level offending on his history,” he said.

The court heard he was not a violent offender, but had a significant history of drug use.

Magistrate Edwina Rowan told Moras his drug use explained his behaviour, but did not excuse it.

“I’m very concerned about about comments that your partner made to police that ‘crackheads’ come to and from your property and that she was not aware of how long various items had been at the property,” she said.

Moras pleaded guilty to one count of receiving tainted property, two counts of possessing dangerous drugs, one count of possessing Schedule 4 or Schedule 8 drugs, three counts of possessing explosives, one count of possessing utensils or pipes, one count of possessing a restricted item,

The defendant had another two charges, one of stealing of a vehicle and another of receiving tainted property, mentioned to be dealt with next year.

Moras received a head sentence of 12 months’ prison, with an immediate parole release date taking into account 23 days of pre-sentence custody as time served.

He will be supervised on parole for 12 months.

Convictions were recorded.