15 Mackay dealers sentenced in court in 2021
Drug crime in Mackay remains a constant issue despite dealers, producers or traffickers being slapped down under the law. Now, the names of the region’s newly convicted offenders and what led to their actions, are exposed. Full list.
Police & Courts
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From a father claiming he is “too dumb” to produce drugs, to a teenager supplying marijuana to support his family, there have been a number of suppliers, traffickers or producers sentenced in Mackay’s courts.
Read the full list of Mackay’s drug offenders.
Kurt Dale Baker
A Mackay meat worker who offered drugs to a 14-year-old girl was harshly reprimanded, noting his behaviour could carry a 25-year maximum jail term.
Teenager Kurt Dale Baker had been living in a Rural View group sharehouse when the incident occurred in April 2021.
Mackay Supreme Court heard the 19 year old felt guilty over his behaviour after another member of the household witnessed the offence and phoned police.
Baker was smoking marijuana mixed with tobacco in a makeshift Dare bottle bong when the child expressed an interest in sharing the drugs, to which she did.
Baker pleaded guilty to aggravated supply of a dangerous drugs to a minor under 16 years old in November 2021.
Barrister Matt Heelan said his client felt “like an idiot”, had since been to ATODS to seek help and pushed for no conviction to be recorded.
Justice Crow accepted Baker’s conduct was at the lower end and represented an error in judgment.
Baker was placed on 12 months probation and a conviction was not recorded.
Zachary Michael Michel
A young man hid in the toilets with drugs stashed in his undies after police spotted him acting suspiciously.
Zachary Michael Michel told officers he was just “helping out a friend” when he agreed to supply 10 ecstasy caps.
Police saw the 21 year old speaking with someone on March 13, 2020 at Cannonvale shopping centre and believed he was acting in a suspicious manner.
Mackay District Court heard when officers approached Michel hid in the toilets as the other person “fled on a skateboard”.
Officers waited for Michel to leave the toilet facilities and then detained him – a search of his phone uncovered messages where he agreed to help supply 10 ecstasy caps for $250.
“When questioned by police, he denied he was dealing drugs and said he was helping out a friend from the hostel.”
The court heard he was also caught with 0.854 grams of MDMA, which was stashed in his underwear.
Michel pleaded guilty in July 2021 to supplying and possessing MDMA. The court heard he was a young, first time offender and he entered an early guilty plea.
Michael was placed on 15 months probation and ordered to complete 100 hours community service in 12 months.
Judge Ian Dearden included a special condition that Michel must remain drug free during the order and be subject to random drug testing.
Convictions were not recorded.
Kylie Maree Louise Dudgeon
A Sarina mother of six became her own jailer after she was handed a wholly suspended prison term for supplying marijuana.
Kylie Maree Louise Dudgeon was busted with drugs and utensils after police executed search warrants in April and July 2020.
Crown legal officer Emily Thambyah said during the later raid Dudgeon was also found possessing $8605 cash.
Mackay District Court heard she initially told police it was her and her partner’s savings and some leftover inheritance from her mother, before admitting it was proceeds of drug supplies.
Police also found tick sheets with handwritten names and amounts.
Ms Thambyah said Dudgeon told police she sold marijuana three times when she was “strapped for cash”.
Ms Thambyah said it could be inferred Dudgeon, then 45 years old, had been supplying in larger amounts.
Then 46, she pleaded guilty in June 2021 to eight charges including supplying and possessing dangerous drugs and possessing drug utensils and cash.
Dudgeon was jailed for 12 months, wholly suspended for an operational period of 15 months.
Convictions were recorded.
John Neville Grove
A convicted drug dealer who offended while on parole was given an “artificial” penalty to avoid him spending too long in jail in the face of lengthy parole board wait times.
Moranbah father-of-one John Neville Grove began pushing drugs six months after he was released from jail for the same crime.
Police detected the 26 year old during an operation targeting drugs and intercepted supply messages for methylamphetamines and marijuana.
Crown prosecutor Julie Aylward said the supplies were for street level amounts and sometimes other things, but there was no commerciality alleged.
Grove pleaded guilty in Mackay District Court in November 2021 to five counts of supplying dangerous drugs in October 2020, stealing a trailer and possessing a small amount of marijuana and drug utensils.
The court heard he had previously been jailed in the supreme court for 18 months for drug dealing, with immediate parole release because of the time already served in pre-sentence custody.
Defence barrister Scott McLennan pushed for two years jail to be suspended after the 217 days already served.
“Unfortunately he tried methylamphetamine when he was 17 … and he’s been struggling with addiction since then,” Mr McLennan said.
“Since he’s been in custody he’s completed the highest intensity drug course that they offer.
“He has been abstaining from drugs while in custody and he’s been working.”
Grove was jailed for two years, suspended after time already served.
Convictions were recorded.
Caitlyn Leigh Garven
A judge reprimanded a Mackay mother for loving drugs more than her toddler as her commercial operation was laid out in court.
Tears rolled down Caitlyn Leigh Garven’s cheeks as she faced Mackay Supreme Court from the dock in July 2021 while her two-year-old daughter was minded next door.
Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso said police carried out a search warrant on the Beaconsfield home Garven, 28, shared with her then partner and father of her child on February 13 this year.
The court heard police found a red and black case inside a washing basket in their bedroom containing tick sheets detailing Garven selling 0.175g lots of methylamphetamine for $400 each.
Next to the basket was a multi-coloured pencil case with three clip-seal bags collectively containing 8.21g of methylamphetamine, electronic scales and a glass pipe.
Ms Kelso said police also found a wallet with almost $2000 cash, a clip seal bag with less than 1g of marijuana and two drivers licences that did not belong to her.
Garven in July 2021 pleaded guilty to possessing a dangerous drug in excess of 2g, supply a dangerous drug, utensils and tainted property.
She was sentenced to two years jail with immediate parole and convictions were recorded.
James William Corrigan
A man must now live his whole life completely blind in one eye after a Mackay drug dealer reached into his car and punched him so hard in the face that it ruptured his eyeball.
After the victim drove himself to hospital to get some help, perpetrator James William Corrigan sent nasty messages to him such as, “f--- your eye c--t, you got off lightly with that”.
Almost half a year later, the father of two was busted during the major Operation Romeo Suitcase sting in Mackay, where he was caught with a large amount of pure meth, just shy of 24g.
Corrigan pleaded guilty in Rockhampton Supreme Court on August 3, 2021, to 11 offences including grievous bodily harm, possessing over 2g of methylamphetamine, drug supply, and enter premises with intent, among others.
He was sentenced to cumulative periods of 3.5 years imprisonment for the GBH and 2.5 years for possessing meth, totalling six years.
He was ordered to forfeit the drugs and was convicted and not further punished on all other offences, with Justice Graeme Crow ruling Corrigan’s spent time in custody was enough.
Convictions were recorded.
Kristopher Thomas Coulson
A Mackay meth supplier, who offered drugs for a lift, did not have to spend anymore time in jail for his role in a drug syndicate linked to the Finks Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.
But Justice Graeme Crow warned the 28 year old if he committed any more crimes, he could end up serving the rest of his four-year term.
Kristopher Thomas Coulson was pinched as part of Operation Romeo Suitcase, which targeted an alleged drug network from Gold Coast to Cairns over six months.
Mackay Supreme Court heard Coulson was identified because of his association with Reece William Luscombe and Lukas Andrew Litynski, both of whom are facing charges that are yet to be finalised.
The court heard Coulson had “succumbed to a methylamphetamine addiction in 2015” and in 2017 was jailed for selling drugs to feed his addiction.
He moved to Mackay and found a job in the mines which he lost when he lost his licence because of drink-driving, and fell back into drug use in 2019.
The court heard he had spent about 17.5 months on remand and if given a parole eligibility date, would likely spend at least another nine months behind bars before his application was processed because of parole delays.
Justice Crow jailed Coulson for four years in November 2021, which was suspended after time already served and he was placed on a three-year probation order.
Convictions were recorded.
Shakira Skye Collins
A former waitress was making up to $1400 a week for two years running a marijuana business while living in her parents’ Andergrove home.
Shakira Skye Collins, 23, bought the marijuana on tick and sold it daily racking up between $50 to $100 profit per ounce.
Mackay District Court heard the former waitress made about $400 a week but during peak periods would sell between 12 to 14 ounces (340-397g) a week, taking home up to $1400 for herself.
The court heard Collins began selling marijuana in June 2018 when she was just 20 years old, with her most recent deal two years later in June 2020.
“It was for a long period, it was prolific,” Ms O’Rourke said.
“It was commercially motivated, because she didn’t just buy her own drugs with the money she made.”
Collins pleaded guilty in Mackay District Court on February 8, 2022 to unlawfully trafficking and producing marijuana.
Collins was sentenced to two years jail with immediate parole release.
Joe Leeder
A grown man with a mental disorder has earned time behind bars after teenage boys harassed him into being their drug dealer.
Justice Graeme Crow said 24-year-old Joe Leeder was a prime example of how marijuana could destroy lives when he came before Mackay Supreme Court via video link from jail in July 2021.
Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso said the North Mackay man came to police attention after one of the 12-year-old boys told them the source of their marijuana supply.
The court heard the teens went to Leeder’s home three times over the course of December 2019 to ask for drugs, paying Leeder $50 for 2.5g of marijuana on the first occasion.
Justice Crow said while Leeder had not corrupted the children, he would have to be stronger against people who “somewhat preyed” on him to get drugs.
He sentenced Leeder, who pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying dangerous drugs to a minor under 16 in July 2021, to 12 months jail with immediate release on parole, accounting for time already served.
Lance Walker Jnr Thomas
A convicted drug trafficker who spent years locked up for selling illicit substances was jailed again for the same thing.
Just two years after he walked from custody on parole, Bowen man Lance Walker Jnr Thomas, 50, relaunched his drug operation supplying massive quantities of drugs.
Thomas faced Townsville District Court from custody on February 11, 2022, where he was sentenced for a string of three serious drug offences including trafficking and producing dangerous drugs.
Telephone intercepts, bank statements and items seized from Thomas’ Bowen home show he trafficked substantial quantities of marijuana and methamphetamine for about two months between February and May 2019.
His offending was stopped when police raided his home and also uncovered a clandestine drug lab as they searched properties in Bowen, Collinsville, Mackay, Sarina and Ayr as part of Operation Quebec Ire.
Thomas was given a head sentence of eight years in February 2022, with 585 days of pre-sentence custody considered to be already served.
The sentence will run cumulatively to the remaining time left Thomas has to serve on his drug sentence from 2015.
He will be eligible for parole in January 2023.
Daniel Simon Hunter
Mackay police have unravelled an “unsophisticated” drug dealer’s extensive illegal activities after catching him on his bicycle with 15 clip seal bags.
Daniel Simon Hunter faced Mackay Supreme Court in April 2021 for possessing stolen property as well as 13-drug related offences.
The most serious of these included trafficking, supplying and possessing dangerous drugs, two of which carry a maximum sentence of 25 years jail.
On December 5, 2019 police found marijuana stashed under the driver‘s seat of a Holden wagon with Hunter at the wheel.
Six months later, on June 12, police found marijuana and a plastic bottle “fashioned into a bong” in Hunter’s bedroom.
Then on February 24, 2020, police searched a South Mackay home where the 46-year-old man was living with his father.
The court heard officers found used drug utensils, amoxicillin capsules, codeine tablets, methylamphetamine with up to 76.5 per cent purity in bags and scattered on the floor, two mobile phones and marijuana in a bowl, bum bag and clip seal bags.
Hunter, who pleaded guilty to all charges, was jailed for three years with parole release on September 15 2021.
Convictions were recorded.
Stephen Frederick Brandenburg
A Mackay father was jailed after he was busted pushing drugs because his training business was failing and the bills were piling up.
The 61 year old was caught up in a police sting targeting trafficking in Central Queensland.
On March 26, 2020 when two men spoke on the phone about Stephen Frederick Brandenburg selling them four pounds (1.81kg) of marijuana, detectives were listening.
Mackay District Court heard police suspected Brandenburg would travel from Mackay out west to drop off the goods.
So the following morning, at 6am, officers parked on the side of the road between Moranbah and Clermont – 13 minutes later, Brandenburg drove past.
When his car was searched police seized 3.287kg of marijuana across seven cryovac bags and six clip seal bags, $5500 in cash and a number of empty clip seal bags.
Brandenburg pleaded guilty to four charges including trafficking and aggravated drug possession in March 2021. He was jailed for 3.5 years, to be suspended after five months.
Convictions were recorded.
Shannon Matthew Hita
An old school friend convinced a Mackay mine worker to join a statewide methamphetamine trafficking operation, with alleged links to an outlaw motorcycle gang Finks Motorcycle Gang.
Between the period of November 30, 2019 – March 31, 2020 Shannon Matthew Hita became a bagman and courier for the operation, earning $2000 a month plus a one-off $4000 payment.
He was under instructions not to look at the packages which were being dropped off, and to remove his partner and children from the house when deliveries were being made.
On other occasions, Hita would ferry people and bags as far north as Cairns and as far south as Yatala for the operation’s ringleader.
The court heard he was “targeted and taken advantage of” because of the “financial pressures” he was facing, and “engaged willingly” in the operation.
When police executed a search warrant, they discovered five packages containing 861.2g of pure methamphetamine in Hita’s chest of drawers, with the estimated street value of the drugs totalling between $172,500-$198,000.
The Rural View man, now 32, pleaded guilty to trafficking, possessing more than 840g of ice, possessing Schedule 1 dangerous drugs, possessing cash suspected of being the proceeds of a drug offence, and possessing a thing used in the commission of a crime.
Hita, formerly a “hardworking member of the community” who previously worked as a tiler and in the mines, was sentenced to eight years’ jail in May 2021.
Convictions were recorded.
Chloe-June Christine Wilson
A self-represented mother of three was jailed for four years after her role in an ice trafficking venture was revealed to police.
Wilson was caught trafficking methamphetamines for 49 days in the Mackay region after she obtained wholesale quantities of the drugs and sold them in personal-use amounts.
Mackay Supreme Court heard Wilson struggled with a dysfunctional family life, domestic violence, mental and physical health issues and drug addiction.
In the span of 24 hours, police caught Wilson with methamphetamines twice.
Police arrested Wilson on December 21, 2018, and she pleaded guilty in July 2020 to trafficking and aggravated possession of methylamphetamines.
Wilson, then 29, was sentenced to four years jail with parole eligibility of August 2021.
Wilson appealed the length of the sentence, and argued it should have been three years suspended after serving nine months for trafficking and aggravated possession of ice.
In May 2021, Justice Elizabeth Wilson said Wilson had not demonstrated a misapplication of principle by Justice Graeme Crow or the punishment was unjust, so the appeal was denied.
Convictions were recorded.
Barry Michael Andrews
A Mackay father of three has been warned he will not avoid a conviction again if he comes back to court for drug crimes.
When police searched a Rural View property on February 25 this year, officers found eight marijuana plants, 119 seeds, 0.315 grams of marijuana and a bong in the ensuite.
Officers also found a grinder, glass pipe, straws and scales belonging to Barry Michael Andrews.
The 47 year old pleaded guilty in Mackay Magistrates Court to four charges including producing and possessing dangerous drugs.
The court heard he co-operated with police telling officers they would find a “couple of plants in the backyard and a bong in the ensuite bathroom”.
Andrews was fined $1500 in April 2021 and convictions were not recorded.
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