Queanbeyan District Court jails Ricky Wilkinson for drug supply

A drug dealer busted by undercover cops claims he sold them meth because he needed money to pay a “tax”.

Cash found during Strike Force Ginga raids, which put Ricky Wilkinson behind bars. Picture: NSW Police

A drug-dealer busted by undercover cops claims he sold the officers methamphetamine because he needed money to pay a “tax” imposed on him by mysterious criminals.

“[I had to] pay the tax or they were going to break my legs and put me in hospital,” Ricky Wilkinson told the Queanbeyan District Court during a sentence hearing on Wednesday.

Judge Peter Whitford SC ultimately sentenced Wilkinson, 40, to two years and eight months in jail.

The Queanbeyan man had previously pleaded guilty to charges of supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

An agreed statement of facts reveals Wilkinson supplied 265g of methamphetamine to undercover police in Queanbeyan during a six-week period in late 2022.

The Queanbeyan District Court, where Ricky Wilkinson was sentenced. Picture: Julia Kanapathippillai

Police arrested him after the final deal, which was worth $32,500, seizing the money from that transaction and finding 26g of methamphetamine in his toilet cistern during a raid.

On Wednesday, Wilkinson told the court he had only engaged with the undercover officers after being visited by “certain people” who knew he was “a little-time dealer”.

Ricky Wilkinson sold undercover police 265g of methamphetamine.

“They didn’t like that I was dealing in their neighbourhood, so I got hit with a tax,” he said.

Wilkinson refused to name the men who visited him, but he said they had demanded he pay them $35,000.

For every week he failed to come up with the money, he also incurred a $10,000 “late fee”.

Wilkinson said he feared for his life because “the tax people” knew where he lived and they “kept hounding” him for the money, promising “punishments” if he did not deliver.

He told the court he therefore considered the undercover police officers, who masqueraded as customers, a way to make enough money to pay the “tax” and “get out”.

The 40-year-old, who worked as scaffolder before his arrest, told the court he intended to move to Brisbane upon his release from prison.

He said he would not have to pay the “tax” if he was no longer in the Queanbeyan area.

“I won’t be around those fellas anymore,” he said.

In sentencing, Judge Whitford said he was satisfied Wilkinson’s motivation had been to pay the mysterious men he had earlier described as “unofficial commissioners of taxation”.

Judge Whitford also noted Wilkinson had been subjected to “extra-curial punishment”, saying the offender appeared to have been “assaulted quite ferociously” during his arrest.

The judge said Wilkinson had then been denied appropriate medical care in custody for months, despite complaining of “disturbing symptoms”.

This was a reference to evidence given earlier by Wilkinson, who told the court he had “damaged ribs from the Raptor Squad when they arrested me”.

“I didn’t resist arrest but I got tasered multiple times and they were hitting my ribs with their fists and elbows,” Wilkinson said.

“My ribs didn’t come right for about six months. I was shitting blood like water.”

Judge Whitford said it would be an understatement to describe this as regrettable.

“It is in fact an appalling state of affairs in a civilised society,” he said.

The judge ultimately fixed a non-parole period of 16 months.

While Wilkinson has been behind bars since November 2022, his sentence was only backdated to commence in June 2023 because some of his time in custody was spent serving out the balance of an intensive correction order that was revoked last year.

He will therefore become eligible for parole in October.

Prosecutor Bec Winder also applied for a court order that would force Wilkinson to forfeit the $26,300 the undercover police paid him during the first five sales.

Defence lawyer Zac McBride opposed the application, arguing Wilkinson had not derived a benefit from these sales because the proceeds had gone to the people enforcing the “tax”.

Judge Whitford agreed Wilkinson had not derived a benefit and refused the application.