Jacqueline Naous: Liverpool mum avoids jail over dial-a-dealer bust
A young mother will spend Christmas with her family despite a court hearing she could have faced jail for her “admin” role in selling cocaine 300 times.
Inner West
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A drug dealing mum has been spared jail after a judge said despite dealing cocaine 300 times splitting her up from her newborn bub would be detrimental to the child.
Liverpool woman Jacqueline Naous will be able to spend Christmas with her family after avoiding a full time jail sentence for her role in what was described as a “Deliveroo for cocaine” dial-a-dealer syndicate.
The Downing Centre District Court on Friday heard Naous claimed to be the “admin” head of the operation, vetting cocaine customers and organising a fleet of couriers to deliver the drug around Sydney.
The court was told in the back end of 2019 Naous was involved in 300 deals before she was arrested on December 27 when strike force officers smashed the syndicate.
Customers would send texts through to a phone controlled by Naous using codes like “drinks” in place of drugs for $250 per packet.
In some cases, Naous was responsible for handling customer complaints about the quality of the drugs and in one instance she offered a discount to one punter who came back with a bad review.
Her lawyers had argued there were exceptional circumstances to not send Naous to jail because it would mean denying her child a mother at a crucial developmental stage.
Judge Ian McClintock said in 20 years nothing had changed in the way new mothers were treated in the justice system and that he had “nothing but admiration” for the mothers and children’s program inside jail.
She pleaded guilty to two counts of ongoing drug supply and sat quietly next to her solicitor Nicole Mourad as she was beamed into the court on audio visual link.
Judge McClintock ordered Naous serve a two year jail sentence as an intensive corrections order in the community after hearing she was “genuinely remorseful” for her role in the group.
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