Gold Coast mum coughs up $100K bail surety for accused drug trafficker

A 23-year-old who allegedly took part in a large scale drug operation has been allowed to remain home ahead of his court case thanks to his mum’s generosity, but there are other conditions.

A 23-year-old Gold Coast man has put forward $100,000 in surety to be released on bail after he was allegedly caught in a large-scale drug trafficking operation in Morayfield.

Tyson Michael Fowkes faces nine charges, including two counts of trafficking dangerous drugs, one count of supplying dangerous drugs and three counts of possessing dangerous drugs.

Tyson Michael Fowkes faces nine charges, predominately relating to drugs.

He has yet to enter a plea.

Police will allege that between 15 June 2020 and 29 January Fowkes played a key role in a major drug operation for which a number of alleged offenders have already been arrested.

Fowkes allegedly trafficked cannabis, cocaine and MDMA throughout the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Moreton Bay regions.

He was arrested on January 29 at Morayfield, north of Brisbane, and appeared from custody at the Pine Rivers Magistrates Court on Monday.

Police prosecutor sergeant Selena Hobill objected to bail, citing serious concerns for reoffending.

Tyson Michael Fowkes was let out on bail on a series of strict conditions, one of which involves him being tracked by GPS.

According to the court tendered affidavit, Fowkes has over $180,000 in debt and police believe this could motivate him to commit further alleged trafficking activity.

Magistrate Trevor Morgan said the case against Fowkes “seems overwhelming” and “the level of offending is extremely high”.

“I can’t say the outcome but it’s probable at this stage it would be an extremely long time spent in custody,” Mr Morgan said.

“As a result, there would be no attraction for him to appear (at court) and respond to those charges.”

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Concerns that Fowkes would “flee the jurisdiction” were mitigated by the defence, which offered a high surety of $100,000 and strict bail conditions including GPS tracking, daily reporting to the Southport police station, a 6pm nightly curfew and no access to any device able to connect to the phone networks or internet networks, aside from eftpos machines.

Fowkes’ mother, 47-year-old Deidre Fowkes, will put forward the $100,000 surety and allow her son to stay at her Main Beach residence.

Mr Morgan found the bail conditions would likely overcome the risk Fowkes would reoffend, interfere with witnesses or fail to appear, and therefore granted bail for Fowkes until his court case at the Southport Magistrates Court on February 15.