Tannum James Bowater: Jailed for role in importing methamphetamine disguised as health products

An aspiring Gold Coast actor who featured in Godzilla vs King Kong has faced court after being busted trying to pick up a parcel containing methamphetamine disguised as vitamins.

An aspiring Gold Coast actor has been jailed after police busted him attempting to pick up a parcel containing more than 2kg of methamphetamine disguised as “multivitamins” imported from America.

With credits on Godzilla vs King Kong and TV show Reef Break, Tannum James Bowater, 38, was working as an actor when police caught him leaving a courier’s office with a package containing what he thought was meth.

Unbeknown to him, police had already intercepted the parcel and found several liquid bottles with a substance containing more than 2kg of methamphetamine.

The bottles were labelled as multivitamins and antioxidants, the Brisbane Supreme Court heard on Monday.

Australian Federal Police seized the drugs, replaced the parcel with a different liquid and returned it to a courier’s office in Forest Glen, and waited for somebody to collect the parcel.

Bowater travelled from the Gold Coast to the courier’s location in June 2020 and produced a letter of authority to collect the parcel on somebody else’s behalf and a copy of the person’s ID, which later was revealed to be fake.

When he left police intercepted him and found him in possession of the parcel, a mobile phone and a diary which contained notes about the plan and a phone number.

A check with Optus revealed that the number was to a phone purchased in Runaway Bay three days prior by Bowater’s co-accused, who allegedly bought the phone under a false name and used it to call Bowater and the courier company about the parcel.

The fake name was the same name on the package and the false ID Bowater provided to the courier.

Bowater told police he was offered $500 to collect the parcel and deliver it to the co-accused, but the Crown said they did not accept this amount as the financial reward was not commensurate with the risk Bowater was taking.

The court heard Bowater knew the co-accused as he was a former employee at the co-accused’s landscaping company.

Bowater pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to possess commercial quantities of unlawfully imported border controlled drugs or border controlled plants.

He asked Justice Helen Bowskill to judge him “compassionately and fairly” and said he was remorseful and “plagued” by his actions since the offending.

The court heard the offending was “out of character” for Bowater who had no criminal history and had previously worked as a landscaper and panel beater.

The Gold Coast father of two was an aspiring actor at the time of his offending, having previously had small roles in Godzilla vs King Kong, Reef Break and the Dora the Explorer live action movie.

Bowater also appeared on 7’s short lived reality dating show The Proposal, where he tried to win over a woman who he couldn’t see, by rapping to her.

The court heard Bowater was dealing with an addiction to meth, marijuana and had issues with alcohol at the time of the offence.

Justice Bowskill said these circumstances “clouded” Bowater’s judgment and he made a “terrible, terrible decision.”

She gave him a head sentence of six and half years with a non-parole period of two years.