Single mum of five found with $800 worth of drugs

Police went to an Amamoor property looking for a missing person and found methamphetamine, cannabis and two syringes in the 34-year-old’s car.

Police went to an Amamoor property looking for a missing person and found methamphetamine, cannabis and two syringes in the 34-year-old’s car in Tamika Louise Smith’s car.

A single mother of five was caught with $800 worth of drugs in her car while at Amamoor on December 12, 2020.

Tamika Louise Smith, 34, pleaded guilty to six charges in Gympie Magistrates Court on Monday, including possession of methamphetamine and cannabis, failure to dispose of a syringe and possession of a glass pipe.

She also failed to appear twice, once at the police station and once in the Gympie court.

Police prosecutor Chris Hutchins said police were at an Amamoor address looking for a missing person, when Smith was found with several illegal items in her car.

Sgt Hutchins told the court police found cannabis in the cup holders of the car, as well as two hypodermic syringes, a glass pipe and a small bag of methamphetamine.

He said there was nine grams of cannabis, and 1.3g of not-pure methamphetamine, which equated to roughly $800 worth.

The needles they found had not been disposed of correctly.

Smith’s defence lawyer Chris Anderson said the drugs were for his client’s personal use, but her children were not present while they were in her possession.

“They were in my client’s mother’s care, so at least she was not exposing them to drug use,” he said.

He also said his client had not used drugs since the beginning of the year, and was now a full-time parent to the children, aged between 13 and seven.

Smith was fined $600, the property was seized and her conviction was recorded.