Vern Fitzgerald was found with 27.6g of meth when police called at his Lockyer home

The 39-year-old Lockyer Valley man had a customer base of 40 to whom he regularly sold meth over a three-month period.

A 39-year-old Lockyer Valley man, described in court as a “high level street dealer”, has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for trafficking meth.

Despite being on Centrelink benefits, Vern Fitzgerald had at least $45,000 placed into his bank accounts between March and May last year, Toowoomba Supreme Court heard.

The court heard that was a gross figure and didn’t account for cash sales.

Crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy QC said police who searched Fitzgerald’s Blenheim property on May 25 last year found he had cameras and motion detectors which were linked to a monitor in his bedroom,

Police found 27.629g of meth in the kitchen and 41 Buprenorphine strips.

Fitzgerald, described by Mr McCarthy as a “high level street dealer”, had a customer base of at least 40 people and he sourced drugs mainly from a supplier in Brisbane who he visited several times a week, he said.

His offending had only stopped upon his arrest, Mr McCarthy said.

Fitzgerald, who had spent exactly one year in custody since his arrest, pleaded guilty to trafficking and possessing dangerous drugs.

His barrister David Jones said when his client was off drugs he was a different person and a hard worker.

His client lived in a modified shed on the family property and had, with his mother, cared for his father until his father’s tragic death in August 2020 after which Fitzgerald had turned to heavy drug use, he said.

Because he lived in a shed, Fitzgerald had hidden his drug use from his family, he said.

Mr Jones said his client had not made any profit from selling drugs and all cash went back into drugs.

Justice Martin Burns described Fitzgerald’s “illicit trade” as “intense” but said he accepted the 39-year-old was addicted to meth at the time.

Justice Burns sentenced Fitzgerald to four-and-a-half years in jail but, declaring the 365 days he had spent in pre-sentence custody as time served under the sentence, ordered the term be suspended after he had served another six months to be released on parole on November 25, 2022.

Originally published as Vern Fitzgerald was found with 27.6g of meth when police called at his Lockyer home