Young mother avoids jail over Bathurst ice syndicate
A magistrate says a young mother who lived a double life running a large-scale ice syndicate with her partner tried to act young and oblivious but knew “precisely” what she was doing.
NSW
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A magistrate says a young mother who lived a double life running a large-scale ice syndicate with her partner tried to act young and oblivious but knew “precisely” what she was doing.
Despite this, Erin Clayton, 22, still managed to escape jail time and instead received a 10-month intensive corrections order in Bathurst Local Court on Monday after admitting to helping Aidan Hartnett, 24, sell massive amounts of the drug from their modest country home.
The maximum sentence Clayton could have received after pleading guilty to knowingly participating in a criminal group was two years jail in the local court and 10 years in the district court.
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The lovers thought they had evaded authorities for months but detectives were monitoring their every move and raided their West Bathurst home where they were raising their two-year-old daughter in March last year.
“I was put in the back of the police vehicle … it’s a memory that I will never forget,” Clayton said in an affidavit tendered to the court.
“I was in custody for about 12 hours before being released … I made a promise that I would never break the law or be in custody again.
“Although my mother is helping as much as possible, I remember the disappointment I saw in her face when I saw her for the first time after being charged.”
Hartnett has pleaded guilty to large commercial drug supply and is behind bars awaiting sentencing.
Court documents say he sold 1505 grams of ice — worth more than $500,000 on the streets of regional NSW — between September, 2017, and March last year.
According to the documents, at first the couple complained about junkies arriving at their home “every f**king day” but Clayton soon started to embrace her role in the syndicate.
She was recorded talking to Hartnett about having to pay one of their dealers, saying they were “actually making less money now have to pay him”.
But in the affidavit Clayton said she was now ashamed.
“Aidan has remained in custody since being charged and this has meant that he has told me stories of people in custody who have had their lives ruined as a result of their addictions to drugs,” she said.
“I have learnt that drugs ruin families and communities — I am ashamed that I have played a role in this and every day I am disappointed in myself that I have had any part or contributed in any way to the supply of drugs.”
In court on Monday, defence lawyer Ahmed Dib pushed for a non-custodial sentence to be imposed, saying Clayton deeply regretted her actions and had suffered the consequences in a country town.
“The community has taken a stance against Ms Clayton — essentially a community where Ms Clayton was raised and has lived her entire life,” he said.
“(She is) somebody who recognises her position in the community and somebody who’s trying to make amends for it.”
Sentencing her, Magistrate Cate Follent said Clayton was motivated by money.
“It appears you were involved in the offences due to financial gain and the prospect of financial gain,” she said.
“You portrayed yourself as (young) and oblivious — but that assertion is certainly not (reflected) in the fact sheet … it seems that you precisely knew what you were doing.”