Preschool teacher Louise Tomlinson to attend drug rehabilitation

A child care worker who has admitted to having a drug addiction will wait 12 months to learn her fate for a range of crimes while she attends a rehabilitation facility.

Louise Tomlinson at Sutherland Local Court on a previous appearance. Picture: Dylan Robinson

A preschool teacher has been bailed to attend a 12-month rehabilitation program after she became addicted to drugs.

Louise Tomlinson, 33, appeared in Sutherland Local Court this week to be sentenced for a range of offences including drug possession and supply; possessing identity information, resisting arrest and having goods suspected of being stolen.

However, she made a bail application seeking to be released to attend a full-time residential rehabilitation facility near Canberra for 12 months.

Tomlinson’s defence lawyer David Newham said she needed to go to a facility, away from Sydney, to get some “hardcore tough love” to get clean.

He said Tomlinson’s criminal history was consistent with someone who had become an addict and he and her family had “watched her slowly decline”.

Louise Tomlinson, works as a child care worker and will attend a 12 month rehabilitation program.

Mr Newham said she “knew she was on thin ice” and needed a chance to attend rehabilitation, which she had never done.

“Some people might say she does not deserve this chance but she has told me that if she is granted (bail) she will take it with two hands,” Mr Newham said.

“After 12 months hopefully she will not be the same person and the program would have worked.”

The court heard Tomlinson would be constantly supervised and would have to attend counselling during the program.

Magistrate Jillian Kiely said Tomlinson was at a “crossroads” and “clearly needs to address her drug problem”.

She granted Tomlinson bail to attend the facility and adjourned the case for three months to receive an update on her progress.

Tomlinson pleaded guilty to offences committed on January 27 and December 6 last year.

Agreed facts state she was employed as a preschool teacher and lived with her de facto partner as of January 27.

The documents said investigators were outside Tomlinson’s Carlton townhouse complex when she removed three large bags from a car that had arrived.

Police approached her and she became agitated, claiming she did not know who packed the bags or what they contained.

Louise Tomlinson previously pleaded guilty to multiple charges.

Police searched the bags and found Tomlinson’s belongings and numerous handwritten ledgers and documents about credit cards, a laptop, mobile phone, credit and Medicare cards, and bottles containing liquid ecstasy GHB.

Inside her home, police found drug paraphernalia, digital scales, bottles of liquid and more ledgers.

A USB contained dozens of images of drivers licences, Medicare cards and photo identification.

She was charged with supplying an indictable to commercial quantity of prohibited drugs, two counts of possessing prohibited drugs, and two counts of possessing identity information to commit an indictable offence.

The December 6 charges of supplying less than a small quantity of drugs, having goods in custody suspected of being stolen and hindering police related to an incident in St Peters.

Police saw Tomlinson exit a parked small white bus and transport a green Woolworths bag to a Toyota Corolla that was parked nearby before the driver left.

Police stopped the Uber driver who told them he had collected a delivery and was scheduled to drop if off at Tomlinson’s home.

Meth and GHB were located inside the green bag.

Police arrested Tomlinson shortly after during which she began moving her arms erratically and resisted being handcuffed before she was forcibly restrained.

Tomlinson will be sentenced at a later date.