Benjaman John Moore Davies jailed for trafficking street level, wholesale amounts of methylamphetamine

Just months after being released on parole for similar offences, a Toowoomba man and drug addict was selling street level and wholesale quantities of methylamphetamine.

A recidivist drug offender who was caught dealing wholesale quantities of methylamphetamine while on parole for similar offences has been jailed.

Over the course of five weeks between August and September 2020, Benjaman John Moore Davies and a co-offender trafficked quantities between 0.1g and 28g to eight customers, with Toowoomba Supreme Court told the 35-year-old would source the drug from Toowoomba as well as Ipswich and Warwick in quantities as large as an ounce at a time.

Struggling with his own addiction to ice while trafficking the drug, Crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy QC told the court when Davies was eventually arrested on September 25, 2020 he had “no trappings of wealth”, and that police investigations found any profit from the trafficking went towards purchasing more drugs.

Describing Davies as a “recidivist offender” with a significant criminal history, the court was told that in May 2020 he was released on parole for similar offending before engaging in the five-week trafficking period.

“The trafficking business that was conducted in that short time period related to both street level and wholesale quantities of methylamphetamine being sold to others,” Mr McCarthy said.

In Toowoomba Supreme Court on Thursday, Davies pleaded guilty to trafficking in dangerous drugs, and two unrelated charges of supplying a dangerous drug.

Davies’ barrister Frank Martin told the court his client was a qualified chef and had been working in the prison kitchen since he was taken into custody and had also been studying via correspondence with USQ to obtain an associate degree.

Mr Martin said Davies had strong family support, as well as the support of his current girlfriend with whom a relationship began while he was in custody.

Justice Martin Burns described the trafficking business as “burgeoning”, and said it was fortunate that Davies was caught before his trafficking could get more serious.

Acknowledging Davies’ trafficking was to “feed and re-feed” his addiction, Justice Burns said Davies had “peddled the same misery that your life has been since becoming addicted to ice”.

Davies was jailed for four years, but with some of the 615 days of pre-sentence custody recognised as time served, Justice Burns set a parole eligibility date of December 2, 2022.

Originally published as Benjaman John Moore Davies jailed for trafficking street level, wholesale amounts of methylamphetamine