Berkeley Vale: Mid-level drug dealer Karen Leigh Eyre avoids jail after positive rehabilitation
A mid-level drug dealer who made customers park up the street to avoid scrutiny from her “sticky beak” neighbours has avoided jail. Read why here.
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A suburban drug dealer who would have customers park up the street to avoid her “sticky beak” neighbours has avoided jail.
Karen Leigh Eyre, 46, of Berkeley Vale, faced Gosford District Court on Friday where she was sentenced to an intensive correction order (ICO) for two years, two months and 24 days.
It comes after the single mum pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying drugs — being 98g and 70g of meth respectively — two counts of supplying drugs on an ongoing basis while a further two charges of possessing 28g of cannabis and a set of illegal knuckledusters were taken into account as part of her overall sentence.
Eyre’s solicitor Ahmed Dib argued his client had done multiple drug and rehabilitation courses since her arrest two years ago.
He said she spent three months and six days in custody after her arrest and then a further two years on strict bail, which was akin to quasi-custody.
He said this was the equivalent of serving the length of any non-parole period she would have likely received.
Judge Tanya Bright said it was clear Eyre was not a street level dealer who was supplying drugs purely to fund her own habit.
However Judge Bright said Eyre was a drug addict who had “done everything she can” to rehabilitate since her arrest.
Conditions of the ICO include that Eyre abstain from illicit drugs or alcohol and perform 200 hours of community service.
An agreed set of facts states Tuggerah Lakes Police Drugs and Anti-Theft unit formed Strike Force Treceagle in September 2021.
On February 17, 2022, police were granted a warrant to tap Eyre’s phone and they quickly established she was an “up-line” supplier of meth to several street-level dealers but was a “down-line” supplier from Terrigal couple Ebony Bagnall and Nathan Regattieri.
The facts state between June 9, 2022 and March 15, 2023, Eyre was intercepted receiving and onselling meth for “financial reward” in dozens of individual deals.
On June 18, 2022 she was intercepted telling one customer not to come to her house.
“I’ve got 2 lots of new neighbours and one of them is a real sticky beak so I’d have to meet u up the rd from mine so u’ll have to call or msg me when your close & I’ll cum meet ya,” she told the man.
On March 15, 2023, officers attached to Strike Force Treceagle conducted a series of dawn raids at several properties including Eyre’s Gregory St home at Berkeley Vale where they found 9.95g of meth, $2650 cash and a set of knuckledusters.
She told police the knuckledusters belonged to a friend who had worn them as part of a Halloween costume but had left them at her house.
Her “up-line suppliers”, Ebony Bagnall and Nathan Regattieri, were also charged with supplying prohibited drugs.
Bagnall, 30, pleaded guilty to possessing prohibited drugs but not guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of meth and will face sentence in Gosford District Court in August.
Her partner at the time Regattieri pleaded guilty to 26 counts of supplying and possessing drugs, recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime and having goods suspected of being stolen.
He was sentenced last August to seven years and six months jail with a non-parole period of five years and seven months.
All up nearly a dozen people were arrested and charged following the Strike Force Treceagle investigation.
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