Victorian man allegedly caught with drugs in Bali, Gold Coast man jailed for bag snatching on island
A Victorian man has been arrested for an alleged drug crime in Bali, while a Queensland man was jailed on the island for bag snatching.
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Australians continue to be in the news for the wrong reasons on the holiday island of Bali.
Victorian man Ricky Shane Rawson, 57, was arrested over the weekend for allegedly holding methamphetamine — eight years after serving time for similar charges on the island’s Kerobokan jail.
Police raided Rawson’s hotel room in Kuta where they claim to have found 0.38 grams of ice in a black wallet.
“We also got a glass pipe with meth in it. The suspect bought meth from someone with the initials RZ for IDR700,000 ($65). We have sent the evidence to the forensic laboratory,” Bali police spokesman Hengky Widjadja claimed.
Urine and blood tests were performed on Rawson.
The director of Bali Narcotics Mr Ida Bagus Komang Ardika said the investigation is in process to decide if Rawson is a user or dealer.
In 2011 Rawson was arrested for possession of 0.06 grams of the same drug — which is known locally as shabu shabu — while on holiday in Bali and he was subsequently sentenced to four months in jail.
He was released in September 2011.
This time round he was due to finish his tropical island holiday on Saturday — just before police detained him.
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Separately, Gold Coast carpenter Matthew Woods was dealt a four-month prison sentence after being found guilty of bag snatching.
Woods, 24, faced a maximum sentence of seven years for stealing a hand bag from 20-year-old Canadian woman Soraya Dergham in the trendy area of Canggu, before speeding away on a motorcycle with an accomplice.
Chief judge Ni Made Purnami, said that she believed that Woods was sorry for the crime and that he was unlikely to become a repeat offender.
Last month Denpasar District Court heard that Woods — with an Australian partner known only as ‘Dean’ who is on a police search list — allegedly approached Ms Dergham and her friend Sophie Buis on the street and introduced themselves as Australian before snatching the bag and riding away.
Ms Dergham’s bag, which was later retrieved from rice fields where Woods was grabbed from the motorcycle and detained by angry locals, contained around $1500.