The Entrance drug dealer Tiegan Hayes sentenced to 16-month ICO
Tiegan Hayes has avoided full time custody for dealing cannabis around The Entrance after turning her life around.
Central Coast
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A low-level pot dealer busted as part of an investigation into a family-run drug syndicate has been sentenced to the court’s equivalent of 16 months jail.
However Tiegan Hayes, of The Entrance, will serve her sentence in the community by way of an intensive corrections order (ICO).
The 22-year-old was sentenced in Wyong Local Court on Monday, just over a year after she and several other people were arrested in January 2019 during six simultaneous raids across five suburbs on the Central Coast.
Police facts tendered to court state that Tuggerah Lakes Police set up Strike Force Footman in May 2018 to investigate the ongoing supply of street level quantities of drugs.
Hayes was charged with 19 drug offences to which she pleaded guilty to one count of ongoing supply on the second day of her hearing with the rest of the charges taken into account at her sentencing.
In telephone intercepts Hayes and her upline supplier Carlos Anthony used coded conversations “in an attempt to disguise their activities from investigating authorities” with words such as “stick”, “half bag”, ounce” and the term “come and see me” which is commonly used by drug users and suppliers.
According to police facts, phone records taken on August 30, 2018, reveal Hayes telling Anthony “you can either give me a bag of weed okay and I will f**king sell it, okay and I will f**king make the money”.
“The accused was supplied with one to two ounces of cannabis by Carlos Anthony on a regular basis which she would then on-sell in smaller quantities to her own customer base,” the facts read.
She made a financial gain of $5964.
The court heard Hayes was taken from her mother’s care at birth and grew up in various foster homes enduring a “troubled and traumatic childhood”.
The court further heard she only turned to selling cannabis to avoid becoming homeless and that she had since ceased drug use and turned her life around, working in aged care.
Magistrate Caleb Franklin said it was this significant rehabilitation which made her eligible for an ICO instead of full time custody.
He also ordered that she undertake 210 hours of community service.
Her co-accused Anthony was sentenced last year to 28 months jail with a non-parole period of 16 months.