Tiana Kaleel: childcare worker charged with drug supply

A court has heard how a cleanskin childcare worker was arrested when she allegedly emerged from a suspected drug house under surveillance by police.

A cleanskin childcare worker charged with supplying a commercial quantity of ice could face jail time after police allegedly saw her emerge from a suspected drug house, a court has heard.

Tiana Kaleel, 26, allegedly told officers she was dropping a laser to her cousin and doing a Maccas run before police allegedly discovered a Woolies bag full of the drug ice in her car.

Police were surveilling a suspected drug house in Greenacre on June 16 when they allegedly saw the Brighton-Le-Sands childcare worker leave the home armed with a plastic bag.

Officers will allege the Woolies bag contained 490g of methylamphetamine – just 10g less than the large commercial amount.

Police pulled Kaleel over in Burwood Heights when she failed to indicate through a roundabout.

“She stated she had just come from Bellevue Hill and had dropped off a laser for her cousin,” police allege in court documents.

“Police queried her as to the direction of her travel and she said ‘I just went to McDonald’s at Greenacre’.”

Tiana Kaleel, 26.

Officers then asked Kaleel if she had anything she should not have had in her vehicle before conducting a search.

“The accused looked immediately at a plastic Woolworths bag located in the front passenger footwell of the vehicle and said ‘um, no’,” police documents allege.

“Searching officers located in the plastic Woolworths bag a number of small bags containing the drug ice.”

Kaleel was on the phone to her mother at the time when police seized the handset from her.

“The accused became upset, crying and shaking,” police allege in court documents.

“The accused said ‘what’s going to happen now? Am I going to jail? I don’t know how much is there, I don’t know what it is, I just needed to make some money and I was just the driver – I just told them the less I know the better’.”

Police will allege the bag contained eight individual plastic bags, one containing 287g of ice and seven each containing 29g – 490g in total.

The bag also allegedly contained a Samsung mobile phone with no SIM card, a set of house keys, a pair of rubber gloves, an Apple iPhone and a Vodafone sim and Wi-Fi pack.

Kaleel spent a week and a half behind bars on remand and appeared before Burwood Local Court, crying and in prison greens, as her solicitor Ahmed Dib applied for her bail.

Kaleel’s solicitor Ahmed Dib.

“On the police facts, she’s in the courier category – she would have to be classed at the lowest end,” Mr Dib said.

“The Section 5 threshold (for imprisonment) is well and truly crossed on these facts but when one considers the options, full time custody is not inevitable.”

Mr Dib cited a recent case he had acted in, in which a man caught supplying 980g of cocaine was spared full time jail and instead sentenced to a three-year intensive corrections order.

He acknowledged the police case against Kaleel was strong – but also noted her insistence she did not know what was in the bag when she obtained it from the suspected drug premises.

In opposing bail, a police prosecutor cited concerns Kaleel could commit further offences, but Magistrate Lisa Stapleton was ultimately satisfied strict bail conditions akin to home detention and a $900,000 surety offered by her mother sufficiently mitigated the risk.

Ms Stapleton granted Kaleel bail to reside with her mother in Earlwood.

“It’s a pernicious drug and it shreds the social fabric,” Ms Stapleton said.

“But these bail risks are mitigated by strict conditions and the potential loss of her mother’s money.”

Kaleel will be housebound at all times except for medical and legal appointments, but was spared the requirement of ankle monitoring.

Her matter returns to Burwood Local Court on August 11 for brief service.