Trent Richard Stevens: drug dealer tagged along with girlfriend

A man busted dealing ice and weed and selling a ‘nice, clean, unregistered’ .22 rifle has tried to shirk the blame, saying he was merely “going along” with his girlfriend.

A court has heard a man accused of supplying a gun and drugs including cannabis and meth was simply tagging along with his girlfriend.

Trent Richard Stevens, 31, appeared via video link in Goulburn Local Court on Wednesday charged with knowingly taking part in the supply of cannabis and methamphetamine and supplying a firearm to an unauthorised person.

A police investigation into regional drug supply in 2020 led to officers tapping the phones of the Bookham resident, his girlfriend, and another co-accused.

According to court documents, the taps uncovered a large number of phone calls between the two co-accused where they would arrange the sourcing and purchasing of cannabis and methamphetamine.

Around 1.30pm on May 11, 2020, Stevens, an unemployed fencer, and his girlfriend Tara Stephens-Biles drove to Sydney to collect a supply of drugs.

Stevens later told police she had asked him if he wanted to go and get “gear” with her and admitted to going on 10 drug collection trips.

Trent Richard Stevens, 31, has been in custody for over nine months. Picture: Facebook

On the return trip at 11.45pm, police stopped the couple on the Hume Highway and searched the car finding two magnetic lockboxes containing a crystalline substance in plastic baggies, which Stephens-Biles admitted was ‘ice’.

Police uncovered just over 330g of methamphetamine and nearly 5kg of cannabis in the car, as well as digital scales. Stephens-Biles was arrested and charged with drug supply.

She spent three months and 23 days in custody on remand and was sentenced to an intensive corrections order of two years and three months.

The defence, prosecution, and magistrate all agreed the role of Stevens was less than that of his partner.

“Her criminality in my respect is much higher,” said defence lawyer Tracey Annan.

“It’s almost double the amount.”

However, Stevens also admitted to buying and selling an unregistered rifle to a buyer in Yass last year.

According to court documents, on July 25, Stevens was contacted by someone offering to sell him a “new, clean, unregistered” .22 calibre rifle for $500. He then contacted a third party in Yass and told him about the offer, which was quickly accepted.

The buyer made the cash available to Stevens and he exchanged the money for the gun and then drove the firearm to the buyer in Yass.

Despite two thorough police searches of the garage of the buyer, the gun has not been recovered. The court documents state, police are concerned the weapon “poses an immeasurable risk to the community.”

Trent Stevens’s case was finally resolved at Goulburn courthouse on Wednesday.

The court heard Stevens experienced a turning point in his life when his infant twins died in 2018. Ms Annan said the tragic deaths precipitated a change from cannabis to methamphetamine as his chosen coping mechanism. She argued Stevens was clearly not the “mastermind” of the drug supply operation.

“He was merely going along with Ms Stephens-Biles, who was his partner at the time,” she said.

However, Magistrate Geraldine Beattie expressed concern Stevens’s sentencing report said he minimises his responsibility and doesn’t appreciate the wider impact of drugs.

“The concern is for the community - what people do to get a hold of drugs and then what they do once they have the drugs,” she said.

The magistrate highlighted the risk to the community of an unregistered firearm which hasn’t been recovered and can’t be traced.

“A firearm is at large in the community because of your actions,” she told Stevens.

Ms Annan said the firearm charge was incidental to Stevens’s drug use.

“This was all to fund his drug use. It was all to deal with the grief,” she said.

Despite taking into account his strong prospects for rehabilitation, Magistrate Beattie said there was only one penalty she could impose.

“The only sentence available is full time custody because of the risk to the community and because the firearm charge is so serious,” she said.

She sentenced Stevens to an intensive corrections order for 11 months and 3 days, and ordered to undergo drug counselling and mental health treatment.