Jennifer Joy King sentenced for methamphetamine production after routine real estate house inspection uncovers drug lab
A grandmother was busted producing methamphetamine after a routine house inspection uncovered an unsophisticated drug lab.
Townsville
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A GRANDMOTHER was busted producing methamphetamine after a routine house inspection uncovered a drug lab.
Jennifer Joy King, 60, and her co-offender were asleep at the time the house inspection was conducted.
The Townsville District Court heard on August 2 last year, the real estate agent located the drug laboratory after entering King’s premises.
After discovering the set-up, the real estate agent took photos of the laboratory and left her business card on the table. When King woke she located the business card and her co-offender dismantled the lab, the court heard.
Three days later on August 5, police executed a search warrant at King’s home and found glassware consistent with the drug lab and the chemicals pseudoephedrine and iodine.
Crown prosecutor Siobhan Harrison told Judge Gregory Lynham other items were also located during the search.
“The defendant made admissions to owning a number of items including a Samsung mobile phone used by (her co-offender) who accessed instructions how to produce methamphetamine,” she said.
Ms Harrison said forensic analysis of the “unsophisticated” drug lab revealed around one gram of methamphetamine could have been produced.
It was concluded by the crown the drug lab was not for a commercial purpose.
The court heard King admitted to the police she allowed her co-offender to purchase the drug lab with her PayPal account and helped source the chemical iodine.
King pleaded guilty to four charges including one count of produce a dangerous drug.
Defence barrister Harvey Walters said his client had been introduced to methamphetamine at the age of 40 but had turned her life around.
Judge Lynham expressed his disappointment at sentencing King at such a late age in life and called her involvement in the enterprise “foolish”.
“It is troubling that a woman of middle aged years would be finding herself using methamphetamine for the first time, but again it just reflects the insidious nature of that drug,” he said.
King was sentenced to 18 month in jail with immediate parole.
Originally published as Jennifer Joy King sentenced for methamphetamine production after routine real estate house inspection uncovers drug lab
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