Caleb Benjamin Rose, Olivia Monique Fensom sentenced in Rockhampton Supreme Court for drug offences

A court has heard how a young man returned to drug trafficking a month off finishing his parole, accepting ‘sexy videos’ as payment, while his teenage girlfriend knew of the drug stash in their hotel room. Here’s what happened in court.

A court has heard how a police chase uncovered a repeat drug trafficker’s return to the drug trade, where he told one customer he would accept “sexy videos” as payment.

Caleb Benjamin Rose, 25, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton Supreme Court on July 27 to drug trafficking, possessing more than 500g of marijuana, possessing more than 2g of a dangerous drug, obstructing police, possessing anything used in the commission of trafficking a dangerous drug, contravening an order about device information, possessing property suspected of being proceeds of an offence and possessing utensils that had been used.

His teenage girlfriend, and co-accused, Olivia Monique Fensom, 19, pleaded guilty to possessing more than 500g of marijuana.

On June 23 last year Rose was seen by police driving at speed on Herbert St in Gladstone about 2.40pm.

Police attempted to intercept, but Rose continued driving at speed towards the Gladstone Palms Hotel.

Rose drove into the carpark of the hotel before getting out of the car and running behind some units.

He was told by officers to come out so Rose began running at them in an “aggressive manner”.

Rose was told to stop by police before he was tasered and restrained.

Officers searched Rose where they found a clip seal bag of 1.57g of pure MDMA in just over 8g of substance and more than $7000 in cash in a bag belonging to him.

Inside Rose’s wallet officers found a room key for one of the units at the hotel, but he denied staying there.

Police then obtained information and documentation saying Rose was actually staying at the hotel.

The officers went to the room Rose was staying in and knocked on the door where they were greeted by Fensom, his girlfriend.

There was a strong smell of marijuana when the door opened.

Police searched the unit where they found 11.45kg, or 25 pounds, of marijuana packaged in pound quantities in cryovac bags.

The court heard the drugs could have fetched between $37,500 and $62,500 if sold.

In the room police also found a large amount of cash and tick sheets, some of which had names and prices, scales, a water pipe with burnt residue and an electric grinder.

A number of other drugs were found in the room belonging to Rose.

The court heard Fensom knew of the presence of the drugs and made a “diary entry post” stating she “cried hysterically” after she saw Rose get tasered.

Fensom’s diary entry said she wanted to run, take the money, suitcase or anything.

Rose was arrested at the end of the search and his phone was seized.

He later refused to give officers the passcode to access another phone which was also found in the room during the search.

The phone contained a message relating to the trafficking of ice and marijuana.

One message from a female customer, who was asking to be “supplied on tick”, said she would supply Rose with “sexy videos” until she could pay him a few days later.

Rose was to be sentenced on the basis he possessed the drugs for a commercial purpose, whereas Fensom was to be sentenced on the basis that the drugs weren’t her but knew of them.

The court heard Rose was a month off completing parole for a previous drug trafficking offence which he was sentenced.

Roses’ barrister Scott McLennan told the court his client had a favourable parole report and his client did not go straight back to offending when he was last released from jail.

Mr McLennan said his client was able to stay off drugs for three years and had promising aspects of being able to abstain from using.

Fensom’s barrister Maree Willey told the court her client had no criminal history and would benefit from a period of probation.

Justice Graeme Crow took into account the guilty pleas from both defendants.

He told Rose the maximum penalty for drug trafficking was 25 years, which was as long as he had been alive.

Justice Crow told Rose that if he didn’t turn his back on drugs, he would continue living a life behind bars.

“As I said to you last time, if you do not turn your back on drugs your history will be in prison for most of your adult life … they are the outcomes,” he said.

“The choice is entirely yours, no one suggests for one moment that it is easy to get away from these highly addictive drugs, that’s why drug traffickers are sent to prison … it’s very serious offending.”

The court heard Rose had been in custody for about 13 months which was made “difficult” because of Covid lockdowns and also lockdowns associated with the October prison riot where inmates were locked down for 23 hours a day for about a month.

Justice Crow told Fensom she needed to understand the “terrible affect” drugs had on society.

Rose was sentenced to three years imprisonment with immediate parole eligibility and 399 days of presentence custody was declared as time already served.

Fensom was sentenced to 12 months probation.