Bank manager turned drug trafficker jailed
Bank manager Shaun Joseph Wagner was caught running a ‘successful’ ice trafficking business by an undercover police operation.
South Burnett
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A FORMER bank manager will spend time behind bars after he was caught trafficking ice during a large-scale undercover police operation.
Shaun Joseph Wagner, 31, sold methylamphetamine to a "very large customer base" over 10 months in the South Burnett region to feed his and his wife's ice addiction, a court has been told.
Wagner appeared in Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday where he was sentenced to three years' jail after pleading guilty to drug trafficking, supplying weapons and another drug offence.
The court was told the Kingaroy man had worked for nine years for National Australia Bank, rising up the ranks to become a bank manager.
Wagner and his wife turned to drugs after a family tragedy in 2017 and began trafficking "wholesale and street-level" amounts to support their addictions.
"Your trafficking was really a method of supporting your habit and that of your wife," Justice Ann Lyons said.
The court was told Wagner ran a "successful" trafficking business between December 2017 and October 2018 and had facilitated the sale of a gun to another person.
"You had at least 55 customers, you had access to substantial amounts of methylamphetamine and you employed two to three runners," she said.
"At times there were multiple deals a day and the undercover police officer observed up to 10 customers at your home awaiting stock."
In 2018, Wagner became the subject of a five-month police operation in which he sold 50g of ice to an undercover officer.
His defence argued he had shown significant co-operation with police, making full disclosures to officers about his trafficking, and had stopped taking drugs of his own accord.
Justice Lyons agreed Wagner had taken "significant steps" towards rehabilitation and that he had freely told police about his trafficking, beyond what was uncovered in the operation.
Wagner was sentenced to three years' jail, to be suspended after two and a half years.
- NewsRegional
Originally published as Bank manager turned drug trafficker jailed
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