Judge to deliver cocaine trafficking verdict for Grant Mathew Henderson, Queanbeyan race car mechanic
Queanbeyan mechanic Grant Henderson’s lawyer says “stranger things have happened” than nearly half a kilo of high-purity cocaine being left behind in an innocent man’s car.
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“Stranger things have happened” than nearly half a kilogram of cocaine mysteriously showing up in an innocent man’s car, a court has heard.
“Well known” Queanbeyan race car mechanic Grant Mathew Henderson, 39, will on Friday learn his fate more than 18 months after police found more than 400g of high-purity cocaine in the console of his Ford Ranger.
Henderson has pleaded not guilty to trafficking cocaine and his case is that he did not know the “brick” of drugs was in the ute he drove to Sydney and back in a day.
The prosecution case is that Henderson purchased the drugs in Sydney, and made up a story about driving there to sell car parts to a man named “Bill” after being arrested.
Henderson told the court he could not remember Bill’s surname, didn’t have contact details for him, and arranged to meet him by the side of the road late at night.
The drugs have an estimated street value of $288,000, and Henderson’s legal team have argued the drugs could have been left in the ute by an unknown person who used the ute.
The ute was sometimes used as a courtesy car for Henderson’s business, Extreme Street Performance.
During closing addresses in the ACT Supreme Court, Justice Michael Elkaim said: “One of them might say: ‘Oh, what should I do with this brick of cocaine in my pack pocket? I’ll stick it in that Ford Ranger’.”
Henderson’s barrister, Christopher Watson, said: “Stranger things have happened”.
No forensic evidence directly links Henderson to the “brick” of cocaine.
Crown prosecutor Sarah McFarland said: “What the accused wants your honour to accept is that someone essentially walked up to the car and placed $288,000 worth of cocaine in the centre console”.
“It’s simply inconceivable and fanciful,” she said.
Ms McFarland said the “truth of the matter” was that Henderson “drove to Sydney … purchased that brick of cocaine, he drove back to Canberra with it and was caught red-handed with it”.
Justice Elkaim, who is sitting without a jury, will deliver his verdict on Friday afternoon.
