Abdul Taleb: Cedar Meats employee found out with COVID-19
A former Cedar Meats worker who tested positive for coronavirus was supposed to be self-isolating at home. Instead police stumbled upon him travelling around Heidelberg West with another man and drugs.
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A former Cedar Meats worker was found out with another man and a large amount of drugs after testing positive to COVID-19, a court has heard.
Abdul Taleb was supposed to be self-isolating at home when police found him as a passenger in a car on Bell St, Heidelberg West on August 11.
The 45-year-old fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, September 16, having been behind bars since he was caught.
Police discovered Taleb had 9g of methamphetamine on him, and had been told he had COVID-19 the day earlier, when they pulled over the unlicensed driver he was travelling with about 2.10pm.
By having the drugs the Heidelberg West man was breaching a community corrections order he’d been placed on in February.
Lawyer Penny Marcou said her client had a strong history of working in the abattoirs at Cedar Meats in recent years, but the job was no longer available to him.
The court heard Taleb had been given multiple opportunities to get drug treatment on corrections orders and had a long history of dishonesty and drug offences.
Magistrate Denise Livingstone said she was taking into account Taleb’s early plea and the difficult conditions in custody due to COVID-19 in sentencing him.
She sentenced him to 60 days’ jail for the crimes on August 11, noting he had already served 36, and re-sentenced him to 120 days jail for the matters he was given the corrections order for, noting he’d already served 50.
Ms Livingstone ordered the terms be served cumulatively.
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