Wantirna’s Jia Cuthbertson caught in police operation importing drugs

A Wantirna man was caught in an undercover police operation at a post office after he faked his identity to import a “significant” amount of cocaine from Thailand, a court has heard. And now he’s tried to appeal his jail sentence.

A Wantirna man was caught in an undercover police operation at a Ringwood post office after he faked his identity to import a “significant” amount of cocaine. Picture: iStock

A Wantirna man was caught in an undercover police operation at a Ringwood post office after he faked his identity to import a “significant” amount of cocaine from Thailand, a court has heard.

Jia Cuthbertson’s defence team told the Supreme Court he had organised the delivery of the illicit drug in October 2017 to satisfy a large financial debt, fearing reprisal from the man he owed money to.

But the eight year prison sentence he was handed in June 2018 for importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug was upheld when he appealed it earlier this month.

The court heard Cuthbertson had used a fake licence identifying him as Larry Longworth of Bayswater to buy a phone and open a PO box at a Bayswater 7-Eleven in October 2017, where he organised for a parcel to be delivered.

The man was caught when police posed as Australia Post staff.

The father then used a series of fake bills belonging to ‘Larry Longworth’ to verify his identity when he picked up the package from its alternative delivery address — Heathwood Post Office in Ringwood.

Little did Cuthbertson know, the man behind the counter was not an Australia Post employee, but a federal policeman.

Australian Border Force members had discovered the 837.9 grams of cocaine hidden inside the box of shock absorbers when it arrived at Melbourne Airport days earlier.

Cuthbertson was arrested on the spot and a search of his car — which belonged to his employer — uncovered an air pistol, an imitation handgun and two cocaine test kits.

The court heard the Wantirna man straight away “made extensive admissions” to the police about how he had come to import cocaine because he had become $80,000 in debt to a man he had partied with in Thailand.

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Cuthbertson’s defence counsel described his “extraordinarily difficult, personal history and circumstances” as they argued his prison sentence was “excessive” and did not adequately consider he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

They argued the sentence was particularly harsh because the offending was committed under significant pressure from the man he owed money to, with Cuthbertson facing threats to his safety and wellbeing.

But on May 15 the Court of Appeal found while the sentence he had been originally handed was “at the higher end of sentences for this type of offending”, it was not inappropriate.

“It was a matter for the sentencing judge to assess (Cuthbertson’s) moral culpability and to balance the need for general deterrence against the mitigating factors advanced by (Cuthbertson),” Honourable Justice Karin Leigh Emerton said.

Cuthbertson’s sentence came with a non-parole period of five years and nine months.