Simon Daniel Walker jailed for 10 years for meth trafficking in Mackay, Whitsundays, Bowen

A meth trafficker who sold more than $90k worth of ice during a two month drug dealing stint has argued his decade-long penalty is too harsh.

A high-level meth trafficker jailed for a decade will have to spend the full 80 per cent of the term behind bars after his bid to have the penalty reduced was thrown out.

Heavy ice user Simon Daniel Walker had been on a suspended jail term when he dealt 1.18kg of meth between November 8, 2018 and January 31, 2019 in Mackay, the Whitsundays and Bowen.

The Whitsunday man was picked up through police phone taps during a targeted operation which established he trafficked wholesale quantities of meth.

A recent judgment stated he sourced his drugs from Yeppoon and sold to five other drug dealers for $1500 for seven grams, $3500 for “half an ounce”, and $7000 “for an ounce” and had at least 12 customers.

A man who trafficked meth across Mackay, the Whitsundays and Bowen has had his 10-year jail term upheld.

As part of his trafficking stint, Walker supplied at least 550.42 grams of ice for about $94,000 over 24 transactions.

He was also busted possessing 50.41 grams of ice in 69.8 grams of substance.

He pleaded guilty in a contested sentence hearing in Mackay Supreme Court in April 2021 to eight charges including meth trafficking and aggravated meth possession.

Walker had disputed two factors – that he sourced half a kilogram of meth twice a week during the trafficking period and authorship of a tick sheet found by police on January 11, 2019.

The judgment stated it was not alleged Walker authored the tick sheet, just that he was “supplying on tick” and that the tick sheet found “indicated what he was owed and tracked where he had supplied quantities of 500 grams of methylamphetamine”.

During the contested facts hearing Walker relied on a report from a document examiner “who could not reach a conclusion as to the authorship of the tick sheet”.

Justice David North, who sentenced Walker, found he had authored the tick sheet and had sourced 500 grams of meth from Yeppoon twice in 2018 between December 23 and 27.

Walker relapsed and became heavily addicted during the trafficking period.

The judgment stated Justice North found Walker made five trips to Yeppoon during the trafficking period, but it was only established on the evidence that there were two occasions when he obtained as much as 500 grams of meth.

“Walker was therefore unsuccessful on one contested fact, but substantially successful on the other fact,” Court of Appeals Judge Justice Debra Mullins said in the judgment.

He was jailed on the basis he had trafficked 1.18 kgs of meth rather than the 5kg the Crown had alleged.

“The offending was at such a level that it should require a sentence of imprisonment that would be at least 11 years, but some credit had to be given for the plea of guilty. It was a very serious example of trafficking,” Justice Mullins said in her judgment

Walker was jailed for 10 years which enacts a serious violent offender declaration and as a result he must serve at least eight years (80 per cent) behind bars before being eligible for parole.

He had already spent 811 days in pre-sentence custody.

He appealed the penalty on the grounds it was manifestly excessive and that Justice North did not give enough weight to the early guilty plea because it was a contested sentence.

Justice Mullins found the 10-year jail term “was neither unreasonable nor plainly unjust” and the application was dismissed.