Tiana Kaleel sentenced for drug supply

A court has heard the tragic reason why a cleanskin childcare worker from suburban Sydney wound up behind bars on remand charged over a reusable shopping bag full of the drug ice.

A cleanskin Sydney childcare worker busted with a reusable shopping bag full of almost half a kilo of ice has told a court she was talked into it by an abusive partner.

Tiana Kaleel, 26, seemed like the last person in the world who would wind up behind bars in prison greens charged with commercial drug supply.

But a court has heard a series of toxic, violent relationships led her to perform a favour which resulted in her arrest after police saw her leaving a suspected drug house in Greenacre.

Police found Kaleel with 490g of ice in a Woolies bag on her passenger seat – just 10g less than the large commercial amount – when they pulled her over in Burwood Heights for failing to indicate through a roundabout on June 16 last year.

The Brighton-Le-Sands woman first told police she was dropping a laser to her cousin and doing a Maccas run before officers discovered what was inside the bag – eight individual plastic bags, one with 287g of ice and seven each containing 29g.

Tiana Kaleel, 26.

“The accused said ‘what’s going to happen now? Am I going to jail?” police stated in court documents.

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.

At Sydney District Court on July 4, Judge Mark Williams spared Kaleel – who had spent several days behind bars on remand between her arrest and her release on bail – any further jail time.

She was instead convicted and sentenced to a 17-month intensive corrections order and 200 hours’ community service after the court heard she had no prior criminal record.

The court also heard from Kaleel’s lawyer Ahmed Dib that the young woman had endured a traumatic and turbulent period prior to her arrest, marred by violent relationships and culminating in her agreeing to transport the bag of drugs for a former partner.

Mr Dib told the court Kaleel had initially backed out of the agreement to transport the bag once she realised it contained drugs – but was ultimately talked back into the doomed arrangement.

Kaleel has also lost her ability to work in childcare due to her criminal proceedings and is instead pursuing a career in counselling in order to help others like herself emerge from personal hardship.