Tristan Michael Bernay jailed for meth trafficking in Airlie, Cannonvale

A Whitsunday region man who a court heard grew up with a meth-addled mother became a user himself, selling drugs to others to feed his own addiction.

Tristan Michael Bernay has been sentenced for drug trafficking in the Whitsundays. Picture: Facebook

A Cannonvale man who grew up with a meth-addled mother became a user himself, selling drugs to others to feed his own addiction.

Mackay Supreme Court on Tuesday heard Tristan Michael Bernay had 17 customers during his two months as a “low level street dealer” from February 18 to April 12, 2021.

Bernay had moved to the Airlie Beach region in 2019 for a “fresh start” but things “spiral(led)” under methamphetamine’s grip.

Defence barrister Scott McLennan said evidence showed Bernay had tried to “essentially extricate himself from the drug scene” in the weeks before police executed a search warrant on his home on May 16.

He said Bernay had texted his supplier saying “he was trying to get clean, he’d found work and he was trying to get some money coming in”.

Tristan Michael Bernay has been sentenced for drug trafficking in the Whitsundays. Picture: Facebook

When police searched Bernay’s home, they found a mobile phone which revealed he had either supplied or prepared to supply methamphetamines “on at least 43 occasions” with quantities ranging from 0.1g to 3.5g.

Justice David North said while police could not establish who was Bernay’s consistent supplier, they could determine he sourced drugs at least 13 times.

“Towards the end of your trafficking period, you utilised encrypted applications so your business model became a little more sophisticated,” Justice North said to Bernay.

“Evidence available … shows that at times, you were threatened (with violence) by your suppliers who were urging you to pay for the drugs that you obtained.”

The court heard Bernay also “sporadically supplied or offered to supply five friends with street-level quantities of MDMA” and other drugs from August 2020 to February 11, 2021.

Tristan Michael Bernay has been sentenced for drug trafficking in the Whitsundays. Picture: Facebook

Crown prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence asked Justice North to consider Bernay had previously come before the courts for drug-related charges, including in Proserpine in August 2020, and in Bowen in April 2021.

Ms Lawrence further asked that Bernay not be given special leniency for his age, now 26, and that he serve actual custody behind bars.

Mr McLennan said Bernay was a qualified brick and blocklayer and as a mitigating factor he had “on his own volition” completed a drugs rehabilitation course.

Justice North, in determining a sentence, said while he noted Bernay had earlier been granted bail, he only followed conditions when it suited.

He sentenced Bernay, who pleaded guilty to unlawful trafficking in dangerous drugs and possession of an item used in connection with the trafficking of a dangerous drug, to 3.5 years’ jail.

It will be suspended after six months with an operational period of four years.