Richard Charles Goulding in Bundaberg court for drug trafficking

After police nabbed a group of people leaving a man’s home with ounces of marijuana, they eventually came knocking on his door and busted his whole operation wide open. Here’s how it went down.

Richard Charles Goulding leaves court after being sentenced in Bundaberg District Court for trafficking marijuana.

A court has heard how a man made “limited profit” during a three month stint trafficking marijuana to four “primary customers”.

Richard Charles Goulding, 51, pleaded guilty in Bundaberg District Court on Friday to drug trafficking.

Goulding had been trafficking marijuana between September and December 2019, supplying to four primary customers, the court heard.

He would supply the marijuana in wholesale or street level quantities.

One customer was pulled over by police after leaving Goulding’s house and was found with 130g or 4.6 ounces of marijuana.

Another customer was also pulled over after leaving Goulding’s home and busted with 190g or 6.5 ounces of the drug.

A third customer, also pulled over after leaving Goulding’s home, was found with 161g or 5.5 ounces.

Richard Charles Goulding leaves court after being sentenced for trafficking marijuana.

Another customer would help store the marijuana from time to time, the court was told.

On December 6, 2019, police searched Goulding’s home and found small amounts of marijuana.

When he spoke with police he admitted to supplying marijuana to those customers.

Crown prosecutor Steven Dickson told the court Goulding “downplayed” his offending when spoken to by police.

Mr Dickson said marijuana was an addictive substance that could cause or exacerbate mental health conditions.

Goulding’s barrister, Callan Cassidy, said Goulding was a carer for his wife, who suffered from a degenerative neurological condition.

His wife had previously been prescribed marijuana oil, which was not part of the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, making it expensive to purchase, Mr Cassidy told the court.

Richard Charles Goulding leaves court after being sentenced in Bundaberg District Court for trafficking marijuana.

Mr Cassidy said Goulding was aware of a friend who had access to large quantities of marijuana and initially sourced it because marijuana oil was so expensive.

The court heard at the time of the offending Goulding was on a pension and made “limited profit” from the marijuana sales, using the proceeds to buy smokes and beer each week.

Mr Cassidy said Goulding was “predominantly motivated” by helping his friends.

Judge Ken Barlow took into account Goulding’s plea of guilty, as well as his co-operation with police.

He said while Goulding committed the offence with the intention to make some profit, he accepted he made limited proceeds from the trafficking.

“Marijuana is in fact a dangerous drug notwithstanding what many people believe and it can cause serious mental health problems including addiction and other mental health problems for regular users,” he said.

“It’s not acceptable for people to be trafficking that drug and you should have known better.”

Judge Barlow also took into account Goulding was the main carer for his wife, and said he’d put her in a “dangerous position” by getting involved with drugs.

“If you were to continue to do that in future, the likelihood is that you would be sent to jail for a period of time and therefore your wife would need to have other carers look after her,” he said.

“But it seems to me you are one of the rarer cases of drug traffickers, who I hope will have learnt from this experience and will not be involved with either the use or trafficking of any dangerous drug in the future.”

Goulding was sentenced to 15 months jail, wholly suspended for three years.

Judge Barlow also issued a serious drug offending certificate.

A conviction was recorded.