Christopher Walsh and Bettina Hoenselaars in Coffs court on drug supply charges

A newly married Coffs Coast couple’s drug issues saw one spouse wind up behind bars, as a court heard they had started supplying two types of drugs to support their own habits.

A newly married couple wound up supplying cocaine and methamphetamine to support their own drug habits, a court has heard.

Christopher Ian Walsh, 46, and Bettina Hoenselaars, 44, sat huddled together as they prepared to learn their fates before Magistrate Ian Rodgers at Coffs Harbour Local Court.

Walsh had pleaded guilty to three counts of indictable prohibited drug supply and three counts of small prohibited drug supply, with the court further considering one prohibited drug possession charge, four minor drug supply charges and a prohibited weapon possession charge.

Hoenselaars had pleaded guilty to one count of participating in indictable prohibited drug supply, with Mr Rodgers describing her case as “dramatically secondary”.

Their lawyer Tony Cox told the court they recently married and planned to move from Coffs Harbour to Grafton to start a new life together and they had “both resolved their issue with drugs and are not partaking at all”.

The court heard Walsh had worked in the building industry all his life and has been with the same employer in Woolgoolga for more than 10 years.

It was also heard that Hoenselaars had worked as an administration assistant with the same company for the past 11 years.

She recently sold her Woolgoolga home and will continue to travel to her Coffs Harbour workplace after the couple establish their new life in Grafton.

Following his arrest Walsh had already spent close to a month behind bars while he was on remand, which Mr Cox described as a “very sobering exercise”.

According to Mr Cox, Hoenselaars had made immediate admissions when police came to their home and that she had “partaken from time to time” but always knew “something would go wrong”.

Mr Cox further told the court Walsh did not “go out onto the streets” to sell drugs but that he was “servicing his own drug habit and his friends jumped on board”.

He said the couple were caught up as a “side issue in a more serious investigation”.

Police prosecutor Sergeant David Sams told the court cocaine is a “drug of affluence” and “extreme profit” that is causing major issues in the Coffs Harbour community.

He also said the idea that people can somehow “play” with methamphetamines on the weekend is very concerning.

In handing down his verdict Mr Rodgers told the court that organised crime cannot exist in the community without “people at this level” of user suppliers.

For the most serious supply charges, Walsh was sentenced to an aggregate 11-month prison term to be served as an intensive corrections order in the community, commencing on July 13.

He was ordered to perform 100 hours’ community service and further received an 18-month community corrections order for the lesser drug charges and the weapons offence.

Hoenselaars was convicted and sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order starting on July 13 and must perform 50 hours of community service work.