‘Low-level’ street dealer Tyrone Dallas Kerslake heading to prison

A SUBURBAN drug dealer who had his first taste of meth as a teenager, having been bullied at school for being short and fat, will spend up to four years in jail

Tyrone Kerslake

A SUBURBAN drug dealer who had his first taste of meth as a teenager, having been bullied at school for being short and fat, will spend up to four years in jail.

Tyrone Dallas Kerslake, 32, was sentenced in the Supreme Court yesterday on a string of drug supply, weapons and breach of bail charges as well as stealing secret police cameras his girlfriend spotted placed nearby his Yarrawonga workshop.

The court heard Kerslake’s now-defunct mechanical workshop was a front for his gig as a “low-level street dealer”.

Crown Prosecutor Steve Ledek said a court-ordered report revealed for the first time why Kerslake had little to show for his drug dealing.

“There’s now a reason why there aren’t vast sums of cash … and that’s because of this gambling addiction,” he said.

Kerslake’s barrister, John Adams, said his client “has been saying to me it’s time he grew up”.

Kerslake’s most serious charge of supplying a commercial quantity of methamphetamine stemmed from an April 2017 police surveillance operation on another drug dealer.

Kerslake’s workshop, where he also lived, was later put under surveillance and he was seen dealing an unknown quantity of drugs to more than 50 people over more than two months.

The surveillance operation came to an end, and Kerslake’s workshop was raided, shortly after he stole and damaged police surveillance equipment worth $11,000.

Kerslake will be eligible for parole in April 2020.