12 young Darling Downs drug dealers sentenced in past 12 months | Listed
It’s a sad story played out in our courts of young addicts caught selling drugs to fund their habit. The Chronicle takes a look at the Darling Down’s youngest convicted drug dealers, and how the problem can be tackled.
Toowoomba
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Drug-related offending comes before Toowoomba court every day of the year, but some of the harshest judgments are reserved for drug traffickers.
Unfortunately for many young people who go before court charged with serious drug offences, their dealing began with an addiction to the substance, and more often than not it’s methylamphetamine ruining young lives.
Data from the Queensland Treasury’s Crime Report for 2018 to 2019 revealed youth crime was on the rise across the state, with drug related offences among the highest.
The University of Southern Queensland’s senior lecturer for criminology and criminal justice Suzanne Reich said drug addiction and offending were more common in regional and remote areas, rather than cities.
She said this was due to many factors including mental health, social isolation, education, employment and housing affordability, among others.
Drug related offences are currently the second highest type of offending in Toowoomba, and in the past 12 months 5984 were reported, including 639 supply offences and 21 trafficking.
Referring to a Queensland Advisory Council report titled Sentencing Spotlight on Possession of Dangerous Drugs, Dr Reich said for offenders had were charged with serious drug offences, it indicated behaviour aligned with “instrumental offending”.
“As an example, if someone is manufacturing drugs, they are likely doing it to generate their own supply, pay off a drug debt or support a drug habit.”
Dr Reich said trauma was another common reason behind drug addictions and offending.
“Quite often we find people in prison who at some stage in their lives were victimised and did not receive an adequate response to help them through their traumatic experience,” Dr Reich said.
Toowoomba residential rehabilitation centre Sunrise Way has experienced first-hand the worrying trend of meth addiction facing young people.
CEO Louise Sanderson said current trends in Toowoomba showed methylamphetamine and alcohol were the most common addictions in people between 18 and 30.
“Normally across our client cohort with the older groups it’s alcohol addiction and methylamphetamine with the younger groups but we still get a high association with alcohol with the younger ones,” she said.
“Certainly when we review our clients and their history their drug taking usually does commence within the teenage years which indicates more could be done around drug and alcohol education and awareness.”
As a mother of two teenagers Ms Sanderson said more needs to be done to facilitate open dialogue on drug addiction.
“One stern lecture before schoolies isn’t going to cut it,” she said.
“These open and honest discussions need to take place and more broadly we know addiction doesn’t discriminate. Across the board there needs to be discussions with young people around what the risks and the short, medium and long term effects of drug and alcohol abuse.”
Here are 12 young people convicted for drug supply offences in the past 12 months:
Jake William Dwan
Over a seven month period, Jake William Dwan trafficked methylamphetamine to 20 people in Warwick and the surrounding district to feed his own meth habit.
The 25-year-old was subject to a parole order for a previous sentence of peddling ice, ecstasy and cannabis in the Warwick area over a six week period in 2016 when he was caught in June 27, 2019.
Though it was accepted his own addiction drove his trafficking, there had been some commercial element as Dwan had boosted his bank account by $54,000 over the same period.
In December 2021 Justice Martin Burns sentenced Dwan to five years in jail, to commence after he had served the 15 months remaining on his last sentence, but ordered he be eligible to apply for release on parole as of December 10, 2022.
Skye Crystal Maas
Motivated by her own addiction, a 31-year-old Toowoomba woman became “very much a hardened drug dealer”, trafficking methylamphetamine to more than 20 people in a three month time period.
Skye Crystal Maas had been found with 12.4g of substance of which 9.346g was found to be pure meth after a police search of her then Gowrie Mountain home on July 25, 2019.
Also found was a small amount of cannabis, pipes for smoking it, scales for weighing drugs and used syringes including two which were loaded with meth, Toowoomba Supreme Court heard in June 2021.
Maas pleaded guilty to trafficking and possessing meth as well to associated charges including having a mobile phone used for trafficking drugs.
Taking into account her efforts at rehabilitation while in prison, Justice Martin Burns sentenced Maas to five and a half years in jail but ordered she be eligible to apply for release on parole as of September 9 this year.
Holly Jade Matthews
A Dalby woman who supplied quantities of up to an ounce of methylamphetamine at a time in a serious drug operation went beyond the need to supply her own addiction.
Holly Jade Matthews, 28, pleaded guilty to trafficking in dangerous drugs in Toowoomba between July and August 2020, during which time she had six regular customers that she would supply quantities of up to an ounce to, as well as supplying to her own drug dealer.
In December last year her barrister Scott Lynch said she battled with a severe drug addiction for some time, and while the period of trafficking was short, but were above “street level” quantities.
Despite earlier stating that Matthews “was just not a candidate” for a suspended sentence due to her “intense and disturbing” criminal history, Justice Martin Burns handed her four years behind bars, suspended for five years.
Tyler Maree Scoones
A drug dealing Toowoomba mum, and her baby child, were released from prison after she was sentenced for trafficking meth over a two-month period from November 28, 2019, and to possessing meth, MDMA (ecstasy) and cocaine in amounts above the 2g schedule as well as to possessing cannabis and two handguns when arrested on February 7, 2020.
The court was told in December 2021 the 28-year-old fell into drug dealing after developing an addiction to painkillers, then methylamphetamine, after a serious car crash.
Noting the 676 days she had spent in pre-sentence custody, Justice Martin Burns sentenced Scoones to four and a half years in jail but ordered the whole term be suspended to hang over her head for the next five years.
Scoones was also placed on the maximum three years probation which would include random drug testing with any positive test deemed a breach of the order.
Billy Jay Gimm
A judge that had been coming to Toowoomba for seven years, and sentenced countless drug offenders, said no one had ever apologised to the community for their harmful actions until Billy Jay Gimm’s heartfelt letter to the court was tendered.
The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to trafficking methylamphetamine, and two charges of supplying gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in Toowoomba Supreme Court in December.
The court was told Gimm had a long problem with addiction that saw him sell drugs to support his habit.
“I think about how I lost everything and how many other lives this may have happened to also. I can’t take back what I have done, and I have nightmares over losing my family,” Gimm’s letter said.
Gimm was convicted and handed a three-year prison sentence, suspended for four years, as well as three years probation.
Given Gimm had to serve out the remainder of the prison term imposed in 2019, as the trafficking offences took place while he was on parole, he will be eligible for release in February 9 2022.
James Lawrence Rountree-Whitmore
As a young boy, all James Lawrence Rountree-Whitmore wanted to do was be a motocross rider and make his parents proud, a court was told.
In September last year a judge gave him a second chance at both when the 21-year-old was spared time behind bars after he was convicted of trafficking methylamphetamine.
In Toowoomba Supreme Court in September the Goondiwindi man pleaded guilty to trafficking a dangerous drug, and six charges of supplying a dangerous drug.
The court was told Rountree-Whitmore’s life began to take a turn once he started working on a station at 17 with other men, where from “sunset to sunrise” they would drink, and he formed an alcohol addiction which would eventually lead him to lose his job and fall in with a “bad crowd” and eventually become addicted to meth.
In convicting and sentencing Rountree-Whitmore to 200 hours community service, Justice Peter Callaghan said it was a chance to “give something back to the community for the trouble you’ve caused”.
Rountree-Whitmore was also handed a three year suspended jail sentence.
Clayton Lindsay Mobbs
Goondiwindi man Clayton Lindsay Mobbs, 22, had a customer base of about 20 people and gloated that “he was one of the main drug dealers in town”.
In Toowoomba Supreme Court in June 2021 Mobbs pleaded guilty to trafficking meth, MDMA (ecstasy) and cannabis in Goondiwindi over a three-month period from January 24, 2020 after he had been introduced to drugs by friends.
Justice Martin Burns noted by material handed up to the court that Mobbs had since completed a Drug Arm rehabilitation program, had thrown himself into work seven days a week on a property outside Goondiwindi and had cut ties with former associates.
Justice Burns sentenced Mobbs to three years in jail but ordered he be released immediately on parole.
Ethan Douglas Lauder
Chinchilla father of two Ethan Douglas Lauder was jailed for drug trafficking in the Chinchilla area over a 19-month period from January 13, 2017.
Even when he was arrested and had his phone seized by police on March 7, 2018, the now 26-year-old had dealt drugs another four times which was discovered when police seized the phone of another offender, Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie told the court in June 2021.
Because the police operation had not been completed until 2019, Lauder’s case had been delayed going through the court system.
Lauder was sentenced to four years in jail, the term to be suspended after nine months with the balance to hang over his head for five years.
Tristan Charles Bradley
A drug dealer with an ice habit continued to supply drug after he was charged with trafficking in an offence that smacked of the nature of addiction.
Tristan Charles Bradley appeared in Toowoomba Supreme Court in September where he pleaded guilty to a raft of drug charges, including trafficking methylamphetamine and three charges of supplying the same drug.
The court was told the 30 year old was a street level supplier, selling quantities of around 0.1g to 0.5g, with Crown prosecutor Ellen Fletcher describing Bradley’s modus operandi as buying up to 1g of ice and packaging it into smaller quantities to sell to recoup the cost of his own drug addiction.
Bradley was convicted and sentenced to 18 months behind bars, with immediate parole.
Daniel James Vane
A 24-year-old Daniel James Vane paid off a debt to his brother by supplying drugs to others for him.
Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie told the court in February Vane had over a period in April and May 2020 supplied the drugs on six occasions.
That included supplying a total 10.5g of meth and 1lb 2oz (510g) of cannabis, Ms Petrie said.
Vane pleaded guilty to six counts of supplying a dangerous drug and to one of possessing a dangerous drug.
Judge Horneman-Wren sentenced Vane to 15 months in jail. However, he ordered he be released immediately on parole.
Kyle Michael Csallo
A father of three who sold drugs out of the family’s Toowoomba home was sentenced in February to two years in jail.
However, in recognition of his self rehabilitation before and after his arrest, Kyle Michael Csallo was released on immediate parole.
Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald told Toowoomba District Court a police search of Csallo’s home in February 2021 had found a cannabis plant growing in the back yard along with 47g of cannabis leaf packaged in bags.
Yet it was what was found on the 31-year-old’s mobile phone that told of the full extent of his offending.
Ms Friedewald said police found messages dating back to 2017 to the supply of cannabis which he had done sporadically over the years since.
Csallo pleaded guilty to 10 counts of supplying a dangerous drug and one each of possessing, producing and trafficking a dangerous drug.
Judge Horneman-Wren sentenced Csallo to two years in jail but ordered he be released on parole immediately.
Bo Austin Moorcroft
A Goondiwindi man caught supplying drugs by police targeting other drug traffickers in the town has been spared actual jail time.
Bo Austin Moorcroft had been caught up in the police operation targeting drug dealers from whom he was sourcing his own meth, Toowoomba District Court heard in October.
The then 23-year-old was found to have actually supplied meth on three occasion and another three he had offered to supply, the last being in July 2020 and he had been on bail since, Crown prosecutor Ellen Fletcher told the court.
The now 25-year-old pleaded guilty to six counts of supplying a dangerous drug and to possessing drug paraphernalia.
Noting he was already on probation, Judge Horneman-Wren sentenced Moorcroft to 12 months jail but suspended the whole term for 18 months.
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