Rockhampton Supreme Court: Joshua Lee Fleming, 27, busted with gun, drugs

The son of a university professor and police officer was busted driving unlicensed with large quantities of drugs and guns while on parole.

The son of a university professor and police officer busted driving unlicensed around Rockhampton with large quantities of drugs and guns while on parole urinated on the back seat and floor of a police car.

Joshua Lee Fleming, 27, received a six-year prison term head sentence in the Supreme Court in Rockhampton on August 2 after pleading guilty to 28 offences including two counts of possessing drugs in excess of two grams, seven counts of possessing a dangerous drug, two of possessing weapons, one of damaging police property and one evade police.

Joshua Lee Fleming.

He had been sentenced in the Supreme Court in February 2019 to two years prison and to serve six months for possessing a sawn off shotgun, a rifle, a bat and 7.54g of pure MDMA.

This time, his charges related to being in possession of a loaded 38 calibre Colt 1877 ‘Lightning’ double action revolver, 15.377g of methamphetamines, 3.67g of cocaine, 28g marijuana, 1.603g diazepam, 1.17g oxycodeine and 330 strips of prescription drug buprenorphine.

“People who want to play with drugs and guns shouldn’t be a part of our society,” Justice Graeme Crow said during this month’s sentencing proceedings.

The eight-pages that outline the facts of Fleming’s most recent offending started six months after he was released on parole on August 4, 2019.

He was outside the Giddy Goat nightclub on February 9, 2020, when police intercepted him and asked for identification.

Fleming instead abruptly turned around and attempted to melt into the nightclub crowd.

Police detained him for a search, locating a knuckledusters and nine MDMA tablets.

Fleming was next witnessed exiting a grey Hilux ute twice at the Caltex petrol station on William Street on May 17, 2020.

Police identified him via CCTV footage and a licence check revealed Fleming’s licence was disqualified until February 10, 2021.

A month later, Fleming was at a Mooloolaba hotel, intoxicated and refusing to leave.

When police spoke to him that night, June 29, he was uncooperative when they tried to establish a ‘safe place’ for him to go to and refused to call friends he was staying with.

Justice Crow said as police arrived at the nearby watch-house with Fleming in the back of the car, they noticed his penis out of his pants and that he was urinating on the back seat and floor of the car.

Joshua Lee Fleming.

Fleming’s next run-in with police was when they were called to a car crash on the corner of Elphinstone and Water streets, Berserker, at 8.30am on September 19.

Police located a grey Honda crashed into a palm tree with keys in the ignition but no one in sight.

They heard a sudden loud screeching sound before a white Holden Commodore, being driven by a male matching Fleming’s description, drove along Elphinstone Street and then left onto Craig Street.

“(Fleming) came running down Elphinstone Street towards the grey Honda and police stopped (him),” Justice Crow said.

He said Fleming told police his name was “Nick” and then corrected this to “Joshua Brethrington”.

Justice Crow said police noticed Fleming behaving agitated and he said he had been driving past with a friend when he noticed the crash and thought the car was his girlfriend’s.

He said police noted Fleming looked like the man that had just sped past them in the white Commodore moments earlier.

Police discovered Fleming’s true name when they escorted him to the house where the Commodore was parked and a check revealed his licence had been disqualified by court order since September 30, 2018.

Police searched the car, locating a leather holster with a 38 calibre Colt 1877 double action ‘Lightning’ revolver loaded with four rounds of ammunition.

A baseball bat was also located in the car, along with 0.981g of methamphetamines inside clip seal bags.

Fleming continued being busted offending off and on, with the biggest bust being on June 13, 2021, where he was found in possession of large quantities of multiple drugs including 3.67g of cocaine, 28g marijuana, 15.377g pure meth, 1.603g diazepam, 1.17g oxycodone and 330 strips of prescription drug buprenorphine.

Justice Crow said this bust came after police received information Fleming was carrying drugs and had admitted to consuming some.

He said he was searched outside the Giddy Goat nightclub.

Justice Crow said when Fleming was detained, he immediately put his hands in his pockets and police had to ask him several times to remove them so they could do a “pat down search”.

“A few white tablets of xanax fell from the left pants pocket on to the ground,” he said.

“(Fleming) lifted (his) leg and attempted to step on them.”

Justice Crow said police restrained him, stopping him from stepping on the tablets and several more items fell out of his pockets.

“As police went to search (his) waistband, (Fleming) started to move (his) arms and torso about,” he said.

Fleming was searched again when he reached the watch-house and as officers went to search his underwear waistline, Fleming became obstructive, moving his hips to stop the police searching there.

A small black case fell out of his underwear and Fleming said “where the f--- did that come from?”

Police located 3.676g of cocaine in 17.591g of substance, along with less than a gram of marijuana, inside the black case.

Later that morning, Fleming approached an officer about going to retrieve his backpack which he said he had stashed in a garden bed and an officer asked for a street name which Fleming did not provide.

However, police used CCTV to track Fleming’s movements from that night and found the backpack in Quay Lane.

The backpack contained 48 capsules weighing 23.594g distributed in four clipseal bags along with a separate clipseal bag containing 11.026g of substance with pregabalin (an anticonvulsant and anxiolytic medication).

There were nine tablets wrapped in plastic, weighing 1.603 grams, in which diazepam was detected.

Several more tablets wrapped in plastic, weighing 1.436g, of diazepam, along with 1.17g of oxycodone, 28 grams of marijuana, five packages containing the 330 strips of buprenorphine and 20.312g of substance containing 15.377g of meth in various sized bags were also found in the bag, along with water balloons, a sharps container, alcohol wipes, unused clipseal bags, digital scales and a glass pipe.

Crown prosecutor Matthew Sutton said this offending was an escalation of Fleming’s criminal behaviour.

Defence barrister Tom Polley said there was no evidence the revolver was used in debt recovery.

Mr Polley said Fleming hailed from a good family – his mother a professor at CQUniversity and his father a police officer.

He said Fleming was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as a child and was medicated from ages seven to 14.

Mr Polley said Fleming claimed the ADHD medication made him feel the same way illicit drugs did.

“He instructs he was using half a gram of whatever he could get ahold of everyday,” Mr Polley said.

“He instructs he is sick of the lifestyle he has led.”

Justice Crow said reports provided to the court showed Fleming, while on probation for other sentences prior to this sentence, had been an unwilling participant in counselling and showed minimal motivation for rehabilitation.

He said Fleming’s behaviour showed he had “a total lack of respect” for police, the courts, himself and the community.

Justice Crow said the one positive factor Fleming had going for him was that his family continued to support him, despite all that he had done.

He declared 443 days presentence custody as time served on the six-year prison head sentence and set parole eligibility as of August 2, 2022.

Fleming was also disqualified from driving for six years and one month.

Justice Crow said he hoped if Fleming returned to offending when released on parole, the parole authorities would pick him up “before he gets his hands on some guns or other weapons” or causes any “real damage” which he hadn’t yet “but long experience shows that this is the sort of outcomes from people playing with guns and drugs”.