Strike Force Harle: Douglas Andrew Hollebone sentenced for supplying 1.5L of GBL
A career criminal said he felt stupid for introducing people in the drug trade and for acting as a courier to supply 1.5L of GBL out of “loyalty” to people he’d met inside jail, a court has heard.
Central Coast
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A “courier” who agreed to supply 1.568L of GBL to a friend told police he was just helping people he had met in custody as “a loyalty thing”, a court has heard.
Douglas Andrew Hollebone faced Gosford District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.
The 53-year-old from Halekulani was arrested in August last year by Tuggerah Lakes police, who established Strike Force Harle to investigate the supply of illicit drugs across the northern end of the coast.
Police obtained warrants to intercept dozens of mobile phones and on Friday, July 31, 2020, officers conducted a series of raids at Gorokan, Lake Haven, Wamberal and Terrigal, with 15 people — eight men and seven women — arrested and charged with more than 250 offences.
An agreed set of facts states Hollebone was arrested a month later on August 26 at his Halekulani address after police intercepted a co-accused’s mobile phone and identified Hollebone as the man arranging the supply of drugs.
At 9.52am on July 25, 2020, Hollebone rang a co-accused and offered him one litre of GBH.
The facts state he said he had “a mate up from Sydney” and could offer him a half litre if he did not have enough money for a full litre.
In the intercepted phone call the co-accused allegedly said “OK all right sweet. I’ll make sure I’ve got the money for it” and Hollebone said “I’ll go over to Tuggerah and then I’ll get it off you or something”.
The facts state Hollebone was intercepted several times calling the co-accused and discussing his mate from Sydney and the alleged supply of drugs.
The facts state on July 28, 2020, Hollebone met the co-accused near Wyong Leagues Club and supplied him with 500mL of Gamma Butyrolactone (GBL).
The following day Hollebone supplied him with 1068mL of GBL at Dudley St, Lake Haven.
During the early morning raid of Lake Haven Motor Inn at Gorokan, where the co-accused was living, police allegedly found the 1068mL of GBL.
After his arrest Hollebone was taken to Wyong Police Station where he participated in an interview and made admissions to the allegations.
“The offender stated he made no financial gain from the transactions and `All I did was introduce a couple of people mate’,” the facts state.
Judge Tanya Bright said people only had to look at the impact of drugs on the life of Mr Hollebone, who had been in and out of prison most of his adult life since he was aged 23, to understand the detrimental impacts.
“There is no question those facts disclose serious objective criminality in circumstances where there are detrimental effects to the community from the supply of prohibited drugs,” Judge Bright said.
“Obviously prohibited drugs destroy the lives of individuals, they disrupt families and generates a significant cost to the community both socially and financially. The community expects that persons who participate in the supply of drugs will face stern punishment.”
Judge Bright said she accepted Hollebone did not gain any financial benefit from the supply and he was just “assisting people that he met in custody and described it as `a loyalty thing’.
She sentenced Hollebone to a non-parole period of one year, three months and 20 days, coinciding with the time he had already served in custody.
He was eligible to be released on parole on Wednesday and told the court “I promise your Honour I won’t be back”.
More than a dozen other people charged as part of Strike Force Harle remain before the court.
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