Cairns crime: Paul Andrew Robinson sentenced for drug trafficking cocaine, MDMA, methamphetamine and cannabis
A successful Melbourne real estate agent who moved to Cairns has been sentenced in court for selling drugs on a wholesale basis using cryptocurrency accounts and the dark web.
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A Cairns businessman who sold drugs on a wholesale basis using cryptocurrency accounts, the dark web and encrypted email for transactions has been sentenced to nine years jail.
Paul Andrew Robinson pleaded guilty to 23 charges including two counts of trafficking drugs.
Defence barrister Rachelle Logan said Robinson was not trafficking drugs for the entire period the crown claimed and much of the transactions were bitcoin trading.
Giving evidence, Robinson, 56, said he was a successful Melbourne real estate agent who relocated to Cairns, establishing a cleaning business which had large contracts with hotels and resorts.
He said deposits during the time the prosecution alleged he was trafficking – from July 2019 until August 2021 – were from his cryptocurrency trading.
While there was about $1m in transactions, Robinson argued only $250,000 to $300,000 was drug related.
He said a man named Richard de Lacy gave him $350,000 for Bitcoin and he buried the money because he did not trust banks.
The drug operation involving acquiring and wholesaling cocaine, MDMA, methamphetamine and cannabis was uncovered when police raided the home of Paul Shane Young, 54, who separately entered a guilty plea for drug trafficking, and found encrypted emails.
In one email, Young asked to buy four drugs and Robinson responded with prices.
Prosecutor Christian Peters said Robinson claimed he received $350,000 for 700,000 bitcoin from a man named Richard de Lacy in 2018 and that he buried the money on Admiralty Island, unearthing it periodically for crypto trading.
Mr Peters said Robinson, who lived in Cairns City until he bought a boat and lived on it in Trinity Inlet, used a stolen identity to register a mobile phone and had Coinspot and Coinjar accounts.
His email name was ‘tropicalbadboy’.
Robinson claimed a $700 per fortnight Newstart allowance while running his business, which had no tax records, the court heard.
His Bitcoin trading was also encrypted to avoid tax.
“I suggest de Lacy never gave you a satchel with $350,000 in return for a USB with Bitcoin, you did not bury money in a tub on Admiralty Island, and I suggest you are lying about deposits, all of the cash deposits and turnover is in relation to dangerous drugs,” Mr Peters said.
Robinson disagreed.
Mr Peters said Robinson was “plucking figures out of the air” now a ledger had been found.
“This offending was encrypted in the way that it was purchased and the way that it was discussed,” Mr Peters said.
Chief Justice Helen Bowskill said she found Robinson’s evidence implausible and he was a habitually dishonest person.
Robinson, who has been in custody since August 21, 2021, was sentenced to nine and a half years imprisonment with no recommendation for parole.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of trafficking in dangerous drugs, nine charges of possessing dangerous drugs, supplying dangerous drugs, and two charges of possessing anything used in the commission of a crime.
Robinson was indicted and pleaded guilty to nine charges including contravening order about information necessary to access information electronically, two charges of possess utensils or pipes that had been used, stealing, receiving tainted property, fraud, unlawful possession of weapons, possessing/acquiring restricted items, and fail to properly dispose of needle and syringe.
Young was sentenced to eight and a half years, with parole eligibility from September 2025.
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Originally published as Cairns crime: Paul Andrew Robinson sentenced for drug trafficking cocaine, MDMA, methamphetamine and cannabis
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