Berwick druggie’s bid to hide big ice stash in aviary
When drug cops flocked to her pal’s Clyde North house the Berwick woman flew out the bedroom to hide the ice. But her foolish idea fell foul of the law.
South East
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A magistrate has torn feathers off a druggie after her “birdbrained” idea to try and hide a large ice stash in an aviary fell foul of the law.
When police raided Ellie Hawthorn’s friend’s house she ran from a bedroom and attempted to conceal more than 100g of methamphetamine by burying it under a big backyard bird cage.
But her amateur archaeological efforts were easily uncovered by detectives when they noticed she was stood suspiciously next to the aviary with dirty, muddy hands.
The Berwick 25-year-old pleaded guilty to drug possession charges at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
The court heard at about 5am on February 7 this year drug squad officers went to a Clyde North property to conduct a dawn raid.
Hawthorn, who had been staying there, was found standing next to an aviary in the back garden, where she had started to bury a satchel containing three ziplock bags of ice, weighing 106g in total, under the aviary.
Her handbag was found inside the house and when searched officers uncovered a small bottle of 1,4-Bute, a recreational drug similar to GHB.
When she was interviewed she readily admitted her involvement, saying she was handed the satchel and told to go and hide it.
She said she didn’t know what was in the bag but admitted trying to conceal it from police.
Hawthorn has a rap sheet 12 pages long, and was on a community corrections order for trafficking when she was caught with these drugs.
Her defence lawyer said while she admitted the offences she was only in possession of the ice for a very short period of time.
He said although it was a significant quantity, her only role was having physical custody of it from the bedroom to the back yard.
He said she panicked and demonstrated “a lack of thinking”, but was immediately cooperative with police.
After she was arrested she spent five days on remand before being bailed on February 12.
Magistrate Tony Burns said “it really was a birdbrained thing to do”.
“It is a very foolish thing to do to assist someone else to hide their drugs,” Mr Burns said.
“You only possessed them for a matter of minutes but the motive was avoiding someone else being caught.
“You are building up quite a resume of not insignificant priors.”
Hawthorn was jailed for 30 days, minus five days she has already served, and fined $500.
