Yandina Five member sentenced for supplying meth

Father jailed and son given immediate parole for involvement in meth operation.

Generic bikie photo. Picture: john mccutcheon

A FATHER and son duo, who have been associated with an outlaw motorcycle gang, have been sentenced to different jail terms for their involvement in a drug trafficking operation.

The two Sunshine Coast men - one who was caught at the hotel at Yandina and charged with VLAD laws - both wrote letters to a supreme court judge before they were sentenced in Brisbane on Friday afternoon.

Michael William Smith, now 57, will spend the next two and a half years behind bars after pleading guilty to trafficking meth between 2012 and 2013 and other drug and weapons charges.

His son, Steven Michael Smith, 30, who pleaded guilty to supplying the drug, received immediate parole because he had already spent 80 days in solitary confinement.

The court heard Michael Smith produced about 1.3kg of meth - 112g which was pure - and sold about $166,000 worth of the drug.

Police also found a gun silencer and ammo buried in his backyard along with drugs and a hand gun elsewhere on his property, along with a checklist of how much money people owed him for drugs, which totalled about $140,000.

Crown prosecutor Caroline Marco said the drug trafficking involved a criminal motorcycle gang.

"The fact that he was trafficking (meth) as a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang with members of other outlaw motorcycle gangs… is relevant in so far as it established a distribution network for his business which would have a fair degree of regular custom and a lesser risk of detection," she said.

Ms Marco also said the trafficking extended to people beyond the bikie gang.

Steven Smith's defence lawyer, Anthony Kimmins, told the court his client was asked by his father to be a "courier" and was not a mastermind in the operation.

Steven Smith wrote a letter to Justice Debra Mullins, saying he knew it was wrong and that he did it as a way to get drugs for free.

"…I only ever gave drugs to a limited group of people who I thought were using them for partying…" he said. "It was more a social thing to get a feeling of acceptance or some twisted sense of being important."

Mr Kimmins also said Steven Smith had been described as a member of the Yandina Five, who were a group of people having a drink at a hotel when they were arrested and charged under the strict anti-bikie VLAD laws.

The court heard Steven Smith was convicted of possessing cocaine at Maryborough Supreme Court in 2013, when he received a wholly suspended jail sentence.

On Friday Michael Smith was also sentenced to a concurrent jail term for fraud. On two occasions he gave false information about his income to purchase two motorbikes.

When handing down her sentence, Justice Mullins said Michael Smith had written her a letter expressing his remorse.

He also told her he was a carer for his wife.

But Justice Mullins said it was too late to worry about that when being sentenced and that he should have thought of that before committing the crimes.

Michael Smith was sentenced to a total seven years and nine months jail and will be eligible for parole in December 2018.

Steven Smith was sentenced to 15 months jail with immediate parole. - ARM NEWSDESK