Aron Couley: Dubbo man sentenced for drugs, animal cruelty offences
A drug addict, who at the height of his addiction was smoking up to 1 gram of ice a day, has been busted with goats tied up by their horns on the back of a truck in freezing conditions.
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A Dubbo man who was repeatedly caught with animals in appalling conditions has been convicted of a string of drug, fraud and trespass offences.
According to court documents, Aron Stephen Couley’s first act of animal cruelty was committed in March 2020 when he was the passenger in a Toyota Prado police busted driving around Nyngan.
The 28-year-old was meant to be complying with a curfew and when police asked him why he was out, he said “why aren’t you out catching the real criminals?”.
Police said Couley was found with six feral goats and four kelpie dogs who were laying on top of each other in a state of distress, with barely enough room to move.
In the early hours of July last year, while on bail again, Couley got caught sleeping in a ute at Dundas Park in Narromine.
With the temperature at 4C, two goats were found shivering in the back of the ute and one was unable to move.
In court documents, police also revealed one of the goats was tied to a cage by its horns on an “extremely short” 15-centimetre tether.
Cannabis, ice and MDMA were found inside the ute.
Still out on bail on July 25, Couley was found in possession of a skinning knife and more cannabis in the Goonoo National Park near Dubbo.
Six days later police noticed him driving along Minore Road in Dubbo, in a vehicle which was missing a number plate.
When police asked Couley for his licence he gave them a credit card and officers found a small amount of ice and MDMA in his left sock.
In August 2020, Couley turned up at the Woodlands Goat Depot in Narromine with 15 goats tied to the side mesh of a trailer by their horns.
When asked if he had a national vendor’s declaration form showing where the goats had been captured and transported from, Couley failed to produce one but that didn’t stop him returning with more goats on September 7, 8,12 and 13.
Couley eventually handed over two transport stock statements he’d already used in 2009 and fraudulently altered so he could collect about $6700 in total for the sale of goats.
The crime spree continued in October when Couley stole 65 head of goats from a property at Bearbong near Gilgandra.
After pleading not guilty to stealing the goats, Couley was found guilty by Dubbo Local Court Magistrate Stephen Olischlager who said “it’s clear he lied” to police and was at the property the goats were stolen from because his car and father’s trailer were there.
The court heard Couley later sold teh goats which, according to police DNA evidence, were close family relations to the ones which were stolen.
Despite a break from crime in November, Couley returned in December when he abandoned a greyhound whippet cross dog named Sooty at The Marra near Carinda.
Couley pleaded not guilty to a charge of abandoning an animal and claimed he had to leave the dog for a short time under a tree because his vehicle got bogged.
In court, defence lawyer Jacklyn Dugan-Jones said “leaving an animal for an hour and 15 minutes does not constitute abandonment”.
She said Couley parked the vehicle under a tree so the dog had shade and left it to get phone reception before later calling the pound to see if the dog had been taken.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Edward Knight played video footage to the court which showed the dog failed to respond to officers who discovered it alone on the back of the ute in the middle of summer.
“When the animal was approached in an area where there was no other noise at all, you can’t even see that dog respond,” Sergeant Knight said.
“He made provision for himself to get out of that area and get a lift from the mate but decided to leave the dog there. Because he left it there in those conditions it was abandoned.”
Magistrate Olischlager said the dog belonged to Couley, had “no water, no food” and was found in a “relatively small cage”.
“It’s clear that leaving any animal in a confined space without access to food or water on a day that is hot, in my view, for any period of time, is sufficient enough to show simply a failure on a part of the responsible person to support or look after the animal,” he said before finding Couley guilty of the abandon animal charge.
After the December crime, Couley trespassed on a property at Dandaloo on January 9 and was caught by the land owner after the car he was in got bogged.
When police arrived Couley told them he was a 30-year-old named “Dean”.
Nine days later he was finally refused bail by a magistrate because of the number of offences he was charged with.
In court, after Couley was found guilty of the offences he had pleaded not guilty to, defence lawyer Jacklyn Dugan-Jones said her client’s crimes were committed after he started using ice when his long-term relationship broke down and he lost work as a shearer during the drought.
“Mr Couley’s ice use became a significant problem,” she said.
At one stage, Couley was smoking one gram of the drug a day and he had tried to get into residential rehabilitation programs but was not accepted, the court heard.
Magistrate Stephen Olischlager said despite the crime spree, Couley’s criminal record wasn’t “particularly lengthy.”
He was convicted of a string of charges including abandoning an animal, stealing cattle or goats, not possessing an accurate transported stock statement, entering inclosed land without a lawful excuse and using a false document to obtain financial advantage.
Magistrate Olischlager sentenced Couley to 12 months in jail, with a non-parole period of seven months which means he will be eligible for release in August after time already served is taken into account.
Couley was also sentenced to multiple two-year community corrections orders, fined more than $2500, ordered to pay $2750 in compensation to the owner of the stolen goats and banned from owning an animal for 10 years.
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