Gympie’s Brad Marcus Gillam pleads guilty to drug offences

An electrical contractor and decorated army reservist has landed in court after being caught with another man’s drugs and an esky full of weed during a Brisbane bust.

An electrical contractor and decorated army reservist from Gympie has landed in the state’s Supreme Court after being caught with another man’s drugs during a police bust at Brisbane. Picture: iStock

An electrical contractor and decorated army reservist from Gympie has landed in the state’s Supreme Court after being caught with another man’s drugs during a police bust at Brisbane.

Brad Marcus Gillam was arrested by police at Spring Hill on April 7, 2022, after officers saw him standing in an undercover garage off Gregory Terrace, published remarks from his February sentencing reveal.

The court heard Gillam, 46, let officers search his car.

Police then located an array of drugs spread across the vehicle including a clipseal bag containing meth tucked into a glowstick tube in the glove box, 0.459g of MDMA, 0.691g of cocaine, 28 diazepam tablets, six oxycodone tablets kept in a metal tin found attached to the driver’s side toolbox attached to the car’s tray, an esky on the back seat with 70g of marijuana and quantities of psilocybin and psilocin inside, THCA in the driver’s side door well, and 47.4g of the industrial solvent 1,4-Butanediol in an undisclosed location.

Another clipseal bag of meth was found in Gillam’s pockets, the court heard.

In total the two bags amounted to 4.8g of the drug.

Two clipseal bags of meth with a total of 4.8g of meth were found during a police search, the state’s Supreme Court heard. One was found in the glove box of Brad Marcus Gillam’s car, and the other in the pocket of his shorts.

However the court was told the drugs, except for the diazepam and oxycodone, did not actually belong to Gillam but the other man.

In sentencing Gillam, Justice Lincoln Crowley said Gillam was aware the other man had placed something in his glove box and left it there and, after police arrived but before they approached the men, had given Gillam one of the clipseal bags of meth.

Justice Crowley said the bag was “foisted upon you to hold while the police were there in attendance” and a “panicked” Gillam, who “knew what it was”, put it in his pocket.

The esky had been picked up from a friend at Gympie before the drive to Brisbane.

Gillam knew what was inside as his friend had been diagnosed with cancer and had a prescription for medicinal marijuana, the court heard.

Justice Crowley however considered the 46-year-old had an “irrelevant, minor” criminal history which was set aside, as his case was “different to many of the others” which went to court.

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Justice Crowley accepted Gillam’s guilty pleas to two counts of supplying dangerous drugs, two counts of possessing dangerous drugs, and possessing a relevant substance and sentenced him to 18 months jail, wholly suspended for two years

The court heard he was an electrical contractor who had served in the Army Reserves for 21 years, including in the Solomons and as part of Cyclone Larry recovery crews.

He received the Soldiers Medal commendation in 2008.

Gillam was now caring for his current partner and had previously been married, splitting after the death of their child.

The 46-year-old was not himself a drug user or had drug problems, although there was some ties to people involved with drugs given he had offered to supply marijuana and diazepam on March 27 and 28, 2022, the court heard.

It was not alleged the deals were ever finished.

Justice Crowley accepted Gillam’s guilty pleas to two counts of supplying dangerous drugs, two counts of possessing dangerous drugs, and possessing a relevant substance and sentenced him to 18 months jail, wholly suspended for two years