Tracey Anne Bills, 46, pleads guilty to tobacco, syringe charges

A driver, who offered a bizarre excuse for an illegal item when her car was searched by police, kicked off a colourful first day of Bundaberg Magistrates Court for 2022.

A woman, who was found with a syringe during a police search, claimed she’d only used it to flush her leg after being bitten by a poisonous snake.

The bizarre excuse was referenced in Bundaberg Magistrates Court where Tracey Anne Bills, 46, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of knowingly unlawfully moving tobacco and failing to take reasonable care and precaution of a syringe.

Police stopped Bills’ car and conducted a search on November 27, 2021, where they found 3.9 kilograms of tobacco leaf and a syringe.

Bills told police that she was using the syringe after being bitten by a poisonous snake to administer water into her leg.

“Having heard her submission, i’m not prepared to accept that,” Police prosecutor Sergeant Grant Klassen said.

“There’s no allegation of use of drugs, [but] it’s just not feasible.”

Bills told police the tobacco wasn’t hers and she was given it by a male friend who she’d driven from the Gin Gin pub days prior.

In court, she tearfully told the Magistrate she was on Centrelink, had a history of substance abuse that caused her to be anti-social and withdraw from society, but that she wasn’t using the syringe for drug abuse.

“I wasn’t playing around with it,” she said.

“Please have mercy.”

Sergeant Klassen told Magistrate Trinity McGarvie that after using a weight x rate formula under the Crimes Act, the excise duty rate for the tobacco was $31,800.28.

Excise duty is a tax on alcohol, tobacco, fuel and petroleum products produced or manufactured in Australia.

“The Excise Act is a serious act because it’s about recovery of duties by the Government and they use those for significant consumptions including to maintain roads, hospitals, all of those things,” Magistrate McGarvie said.

“The maximum penalties for these offences are really, really serious.”

Bills let out a loud gasp in the courtroom after Ms McGarvie informed her that the maximum penalty was two years imprisonment or the duty, which was in excess of $31,000.

Ms McGarvie took into consideration that Bills had not been before the court for charges of this nature, her pleas of guilty and accepted her explanations to police in relation to the offending.

She was fined $1250, referred to SPER, and convictions were recorded.