Dean Phillips, Mark Chartres-Abbott and Deborah Mulholland sentenced for guns, drugs offences
An “up-line” supplier, his former partner who helped weigh out the drugs and his “street-level dealer” who onsold drugs and guns to an undercover police officer have been sentenced.
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Mark Chartres-Abbott, who was an “up-line supplier” to his “street level” drug and gun dealer, has been sentenced to 14 years jail with a non-parole period of eight years and six months.
The 65-year-old was one of three people sentenced at Gosford District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to a raft of drug and firearms offences.
The court heard Chartres-Abbott had a long criminal history dating back to 1975 — having spent stints in jail for drug offences and armed robbery — who was on the methadone program and caring for his ex-partner “until a chance meeting with someone” saw him become “reinvolved in the drug milieu”.
The court heard the chance meeting with the old acquaintance dragged him back into the “world of drugs” and his renewed dependence forced him to become a slave to unknown bikies who would drop off guns and large quantities of drugs to his Lentara Rd house at Umina Beach and return to collect large sums of cash.
In a handwritten letter tendered to the court, Chartres-Abbott — AKA `Norm Smith’ — said he was forced to supply the drugs.
“My role became a burden,” he wrote. “I didn’t have the strength to stop it.”
A set of agreed police facts tendered to court state Brisbane Water Police established Strike Force Basic to investigate the supply of the drug ‘ice’ at Woy Woy and surrounding areas in November 2018.
The court heard in March last year, police planted an undercover officer who befriended Chartres-Abbott’s “street level dealer” in Dean William Maxwell Phillips.
The court heard 39-year-old Phillips, of Woy Woy, onsold the drugs to his customer base to fund his own addiction but did not otherwise financially gain from the transactions and was not the old acquaintance who dragged Chartres-Abbott back into the world of drugs.
Using Phillips as a go-between the officer purchased 6.75g of ‘ice’ for $1200 and an imitation Walther Model PP pistol for $1100.
The officer then purchased a shortened .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire Stirling model repeating rifle and $4000 worth of methylamphetamine and heroin.
But by April the undercover officer was pressuring Phillips to introduce him to his supplier but Phillips said “He’s a very private man, he’s not gonna do it, he’s trying to get small”.
After a number of other purchases Phillips agreed to introduce the undercover officer to Chartres-Abbott.
Police facts state the officer met Chartres-Abbott on two occasions to purchase 168g bags of methylamphetamine for $23,400 each.
Chartres-Abbott’s ex-partner, 54-year-old Deborah Mulholland, lived with him at the Umina Beach address and according to the police facts helped him weigh out the drugs.
On May 24 police raided their Lentara Rd home and found two shortened .22 calibre rifles and a 12 gauge Harrington shotgun buried in PVC pipes in the backyard.
Police also seized $94,285 in cash, digital scales, money counter, 888.79g of MDMA, 368.8g of heroin and 10mL of anabolic steroid.
During the search Chartres-Abbott told police bikies dropped the guns and drugs off to him and were going to collect the money but refused to tell officers who “did the drop” as he knew “what’s gonna f...ing happen to (him) if (he said) anything”, the facts read.
Chartres-Abbott later pleaded guilty to supplying 1,177.63g of methylamphetamine, 287g of heroin, three counts of possessing a prohibited firearm, and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
Mulholland pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying a total of 321.4g of methylamphetamine and one count of possessing a prohibited drug after police found 17g of cannabis in her bedside drawer.
Phillips was arrested a month later and pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying commercial quantities of drugs and unlawfully selling three firearms within 12 months.
He also pleaded guilty to a further commercial supply charge, knowingly take part in the supply of drugs and possessing an unregistered firearm.
Phillips was sentenced to eight years jail with a non-parole period of four years and 10 months.
Mulholland was sentenced to 11 months and 17 days jail to be served by way of an intensive corrections order.