Alana Rae Wooster pleads guilty to range of offences but remains in custody

A 44-year-old mother of two pleaded guilty to number of offences, but will remain in custody. See why here.

A 44-year-old mother of two will remain in custody despite pleading guilty in Toowoomba Magistrates Court to a number of offences.

Alana Rae Wooster appeared via video link from prison on Tuesday to plead guilty to the relatively less serious offences of drug driving at Meringandan West on November 26, possessing suboxone and someone else’s driver’s licence that was considered tainted property, breaching bail by failing to report to Brisbane police on November 23, 2021, and failing to appear in a Brisbane court on January 11, 2022.

Wooster was subject to a parole order at the time of some of the offences and she had spent 88 days in pre-sentence custody, police prosecutor Sergeant Alister Windsor told the court.

Defence lawyer Chelsea Saldumbide, of McConnell Saldumbide Lawyers, told the court her client had a long-standing drug issue which stemmed from a previous violent relationship.

Her client’s ex-husband had since been deported to New Zealand, she said.

However, when not in custody and free of drug use Wooster had a good work record and she had regular contact with her teenage children who lived with their grandmother, she said.

Wooster had matters before the Supreme Court which it was hoped to have dealt with when that court sat in Toowoomba later this month and Ms Saldumbide asked for an adjournment on those matters so a registry committal could be done to take those straight up to the higher court.

Magistrate Kay Ryan took into account the 88 days of pre-sentence custody but did not declare it as part of her sentence and fined Wooster $1200, which was referred to SPER, and disqualified her from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for three months on the drug driving offence.

Originally published as Alana Rae Wooster pleads guilty to range of offences but remains in custody