Rhys Philp: Frankston drug dealer used Uber to make deliveries
Not appy: A dealer who tried to avoid detection by using a ride share to do his dirty work got caught out by a Covid checkpoint.
South East
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A drug dealer has ended up in jail after cops stopped his Uber delivery driver at a Covid checkpoint, a court has heard.
Rhys Philp had booked a ride share to take a bag of ice hidden in a cigarette packet to his buyer in Nyora, a town in south Gippsland.
But the 25-year-old roof plumbing apprentice didn’t count on his driver being pulled over at a police-operated pandemic roadblock.
Cops uncovered the ice, went to Philp’s home and found bags and bags of drugs, cash, dealing notes and trafficking paraphernalia.
And on his phone there was a range of self-implicating selling messages and videos.
He pleaded guilty to a raft of drug dealing, possession and proceeds of crime charges at the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The court heard on October 4 last year Philp booked an Uber from his Frankston home to an address in the south Gippsland town of Nyora.
Philp secreted a cigarette packet inside the car and the driver set off, getting as far as a Covid checkpoint in Lang Lang.
Police searched the vehicle, finding 3g of ice inside the ciggies box, and tracked the sender through the Uber app.
Drug detectives then raided Philp’s mother’s house, where he had been living, but he was not there.
They found several bags of ice totalling more than 100g, 17g of ketamine, ecstasy and Xanax pills, prescription medications, $3450 in cash and drug sale notes.
They later arrested Philp at a McDonald’s in Kilsyth, uncovering a series of damning dealing transactions on his phone.
Defence lawyer Tiffany Jansen said her client had had drug problems in the past and had relapsed, making “the wrong choices” to deal to pay for his own habit.
She said he had already spent 408 days on remand, and had turned to Buddhism while in custody to try and “find some stability” in his life.
She said Philp, a New Zealand national, is highly likely to be deported when he is released from jail.
Magistrate Ross Betts said the offending was serious and it required a significant term of imprisonment.
Philp was jailed for 18 months, minus 408 days classed as time served.
