Crabber Levi Watson pleads guilty to possessing 1.5kg of marijuana at Mountain Creek

A crab fisherman told police he had not seen the drugs before after they found the gargantuan amount in a car he had been driving.

Levi Jason Robert Watson faced Maroochydore District Court on Tuesday. Picture: Patrick Woods

A court has heard how an Agnes Water crabber told police he must have picked up the wrong bag from the wharf after they discovered 1.5kg of marijuana in a car he had been driving.

Levi Jason Robert Watson told detectives the lie after they raided a Mountain Creek property on May 21 last year, where they uncovered a large amount of cannabis divided into four vacuum sealed bags in a shopping bag inside a vehicle.

Officers searched the home for an unrelated matter when they found the drugs.

In Maroochydore District Court on Tuesday, barrister Lily Brisick, acting for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the 30-year-old told police he used the car but had never seen the drugs before.

He later claimed he “accidentally” picked up the bag from next to a rubbish bin at the wharf.

The court heard he refused to give police access to his phone which led to him being arrested and charged with possessing dangerous drugs over the schedule and contravening an order to open his phone.

He was granted bail the next day after a night in the Maroochydore watch-house, and was on conditional release up until his sentence this week where he pleaded guilty to both charges.

Watson pleaded guilty. Picture: Patrick Woods

Ms Brisick said the 30-year-old was being sentenced on the basis he was going to use the drugs for both personal and commercial use, where it was agreed there was “potential for distribution” to recover the cost of the drugs.

The barrister said the offending breached a six month good behaviour bond Watson was placed on in March last year after being found with 135 capsules of pain relief medication in boxes which had their scripts removed.

Defence barrister Simon Lewis said the spanner crab fisherman, who now lived at Agnes Water but previously lived on the Sunshine Coast, had separated from his fiance early last year which led to him “losing his way” into drug use.

Mr Lewis claimed Watson would smoke marijuana and use painkillers during this time. The barrister said the 30-year-old routinely spent long periods of time at sea for work and shared marijuana on-board with his crew.

He put to the court Watson would recoup the costs this way.

Judge Gary Long jailed Watson for 10 months but granted immediate parole. He was also fined $1500.