Queensland Corrective Services cease travel to Tara following ’safety’ concerns, Dalby court told

A Western Downs court was left stumped while sentencing a disqualified driver from Tara as a correctives officer revealed they no longer travelled to the township due to ‘safety recommendations’. See what happened.

A Western Downs magistrate was left stumped while sentencing a Tara man when it was revealed that Queensland Corrective Services no longer travelled to the township following “safety recommendations”.

Magistrate Kyna Morice sentenced Douglas Keith Moffat in Dalby Magistrates Court on March 23 following a string of drug-related and traffic offences.

She said due to the man’s criminal history, which consisted of similar drug offending, she had to place the man on a period of probation.

However, that plan hit a snag when the Queensland Corrective Services office was queried about its services in Tara, and it was revealed in court that they said they were no longer travelling to the town.

Probation services officer Angi Kuehnemann was contacted by Ms Morice in court, as Moffat would not have his licence to drive to the nearest office, which would be located in Dalby or Chinchilla.

Douglas Keith Moffat was sentenced for a string of drug and traffic related charges in Dalby Magistrates Court, March 23 2023. Picture: Facebook

“We do service that area, we have since the events recently stopped attending Tara for safety,” Ms Kuehnemann said.

Ms Morice asked if the services were offered in Tara previously.

“We did, we didn’t have a requirement to do it, we did it as a service,” Ms Kuehnemann said.

“We would attend once a month however we have due to safety recommendations for the time being stopped until we can reassess.

“So we don’t have any date at the moment or when we would be re-attending.”

Ms Kuehnemann suggested Moffat reported to probations via phone.

“It would also be dependent on his phone coverage as we do struggle with that,” she said.

Moffat, who agreed to the period of probation, was before court after police believed he was under the influence of drugs while driving in Tara on April 29 last year.

Police prosecutor Chris Hutchins said police found an uncapped syringe in his trousers as well as a crystal substance in a small bag.

A couple of months later, the 32-year-old was found with 7.9g of marijuana, more syringes and a clip seal bag with drug residue.

Defence lawyer Julia Molloy said her client’s drug use had been particularly difficult during the time of the offending, and he took steps to address his drug problem by moving outside of Tara where he works as a labourer on a property.

Moffat pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing drugs, two counts of failing to dispose of a syringe properly, one count of driving while under the influence, possessing used utensils, failure to appear in accordance with undertaking, contravening direction of police and possessing an item used in commission of a crime.

He was sentenced to six months’ probation and disqualified from driving for 12 months.