Ben Climpson: Canberra courier drove $600k of drugs to Qld

A man in his 20s has been jailed for his role in a sophisticated trafficking scheme which saw two other people jailed.

A Canberra man couriered 25,000 MDA capsules from Sydney to Brisbane, as part of a sophisticated trafficking scheme in which three other people were also sentenced, two of them jailed.

Theodore man Benjamin Climpson, 27, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court on Friday to one count of supplying a Schedule 2 dangerous drug.

The court heard Climpson, a gutter guard installer with no criminal history, agreed to courier the 24,959 MDA tablets from Sydney to Brisbane on return for $2000.

Climpson travelled from Canberra to Sydney on November 18, 2017, and collected a black luggage bag from a man.

Benjamin Climpson has been jailed. Picture: Facebook

In the early hours of November 19, 2017, Climpson checked into a Fortitude Valley hotel before attending an address on Madden St, Albion, about 9.30am.

Two men who have also been sentenced were witnessed by police parking next to Climpson’s car, at which point Climpson got in theirs with the luggage bag.

The car drove 30m down the road and then Climpson exited, sans bag, the court heard.

A search warrant executed at the Madden St address uncovered the MDA pills, weighing 7.32kg in total, which had a street value of $624,000 if sold individually, or $300,000 if sold by the thousand.

The court heard Climpson attended Queensland Police headquarters on May 28, 2019, and made full admissions to being the courier of the operation.

His three co-defendants have all previously been sentenced.

One man was jailed for four years, to be released after serving 12 months, for possessing the MDA capsules; another man was jailed for seven years with parole eligibility after serving two years, for trafficking over a period of one year and eight months, a period which netted him an estimated profit of $200,000; while his partner, as party to the trafficking, was sentenced to three years’ jail wholly suspended.

It was submitted on Climpson’s behalf that he had totally rehabilitated himself “at no cost to ACT taxpayers”, evidenced by his lack of offending on the two years he had been on bail.

Climpson, the court was told, had a severe depressive disorder, but had nevertheless secured respectable work and a new partner.

The court heard Climpson was “paranoid” his ex-associates were coming for him, submitted as being further evidence of his desire to put his old life behind him.

Judge Gregory Lynham sentenced Climpson to five years’ jail, suspended after serving 18 months behind bars, for a period of five years.