Darwin FIFO worker who traded mining for drug dealing to spend 18 months behind bars
A FORMER Darwin FIFO worker at GEMCO’s Groote Eylandt manganese mine, who quit his job to start a drug dealing business, has been jailed for 18-months
Police & Courts
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A FORMER Darwin FIFO worker at GEMCO’s Groote Eylandt manganese mine who quit his job to start a drug dealing business has been jailed for 18-months.
Matthew Findlay, 33, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to supplying a commercial quantity of cannabis and less than a commercial quantity of methamphetamine after police broke up his operation last year.
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The court heard Findlay was earning between $131,000 and $140,000 at the mine up until the end of October 2019 when he resigned and received a payout of more than $18,000.
Shortly before leaving the job, Findlay started dealing cannabis out of his Howard Springs home and police subsequently raided the property on November 11.
Officers found almost 3kg of cannabis and more than $5000 in cash and arrested Findlay who has been in jail ever since.
In setting a head sentence of three years in prison, to be suspended after 18 months, Justice Stephen Southwood said the offending was “a case of greed and commercial gain”.
“The offender engaged in this activity in circumstances where he had been well paid by GEMCO while he was employed with them and he received a substantial payout, slightly in excess of $18,000, upon leaving GEMCO,” he said.
Justice Southwood said while Findlay was of previously good character, he gave less weight to his prior almost clean record because he “deliberately decided to engage in drug dealing for commercial gain”.
“It is apparent that the offender, as an adult, deliberately elected to go into business as a drug dealer and he commenced dealing in drugs prior to terminating his employment at GEMCO — he did so for commercial gain and it is apparent that he was well under way in establishing this unlawful business,” he said.
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“It is not a case of a dependant drug dealer desperate to obtain more drugs, nor is it a case of a poor person engaging in dealing in drugs because of need, nor is it a case that it was necessary to engage in drug dealing to overcome gambling debts or to meet gambling debts.”
Justice Southwood said Findlay did have some prospects for rehabilitation and ordered that he spend three months in residential rehab after his release from prison next year.
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