Natisha Hetherington: Waterford West smuggled drug to prisoner
A young woman attempted to pass off prescription medication as hard drugs in a bungled jail drug smuggling attempt.
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A young Logan woman who received a call from a prisoner known to her saying he’d been bashed and would be bashed again if he didn’t provide his attackers with drugs tried to smuggle two prescription tablets into the prison to be passed off as hard drugs.
Logan woman Natisha Maree Hetherington, 21, was predictably busted trying to hand over the two Lyrica tablets (typically used to treat neuropathic pain and also to control epilepsy) on December 5 last year.
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Defence lawyer David Gilmore told Beenleigh Magistrates Court the man contacted his client saying he’d been “bashed, assaulted, that he needed to take drugs into the centre and if he didn’t facilitate that he would get bashed”.
“He told her, ‘You need to do something to help me’,” Mr Gilmore said.
Mr Gilmore suggested prison authorities “may have already had” intelligence Hetherington was going to attempt to smuggle drugs.
“And of course there’s cameras everywhere,” he added.
This incident was one of 11 charges Hetherington pleaded guilty to, the most serious of which, aside from the smuggling, were giving two false declarations on April 5 last year to try and dodge speeding tickets.
Hetherington nominated a driver who was completely unknown to her, who was dumbfounded to find out she had been nominated.
The other charges Hetherington pleaded guilty to were: contravening a direction or requirement of police, driving on a licence suspended due to demerit point accumulation – repeat offender, stealing, possessing drug utensils, three counts of fraud, and speeding.
The court heard the speeding charge involved Hetherington’s car travelling 148 km/h in an 80 km/h zone, but it was accepted this was driven by someone else despite her guilty plea.
Hetherington was placed on 12 months’ probation.
Convictions were recorded for all charges.