Drug dealer pleads guilty to selling prescription morphine tablets

A WHEELCHAIR-bound drug dealer reaped thousands in ill-gotten profits by selling off prescription morphine tablets for $50 a pill, a court has heard

Gabrielle Mary Parker leaves the NT Supreme Court with her face covered by a towel after pleading guilty to drugs charges. The court heard she sold her prescription morphine for $50 a pill, making a $14,000 profit

A WHEELCHAIR-bound drug dealer reaped thousands in ill-gotten profits by selling off prescription morphine tablets for $50 a pill, a court has heard.

Gabrielle Mary Parker, formerly of Moulden, pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis and morphine with co-offender Michelle Henwood, 52, who is awaiting sentence and who the court heard was a well-known drug supplier in Aboriginal communities.

Parker used a towel to cover her face as she was wheeled from the Supreme Court on Monday.

The court heard Henwood was the target of a major NT Police operation last year, during which her phone was tapped, revealing Parker as the ultimate source of much of the morphine that was on-sold.

Parker filled three scripts for boxes of 112 morphine tablets at a pharmacy in Nightcliff late last year, with each box setting her back $5.30 thanks to the taxpayer-subsidised pharmaceutical benefits scheme.

She sold each tablet to Henwood for $50, turning a total profit of more than $14,000.

Crown Prosecutor John Ibbotson told the court Parker sold a total of 290 tablets to Henwood.

The court has separately heard that Henwood on-sold the tablets for $70 each.

A drug squad raid on Parker’s former house at Moulden in February saw police uncover a small amount of cannabis and an ice pipe, as well as the phone she used to contact Henwood.

Mr Ibbotson said Parker knew Henwood intended to on-sell the drugs to other members of the community, “some of whom were addicted to dangerous drugs such as morphine”.

Parker’s lawyer, Shane McMaster, asked for Parker to be assessed for home detention at an address at Durack Heights, where she is cared for by her daughter.

Parker and Henwood’s sentencing proceedings will resume in February.