Roadtripping parolee busted selling drugs in shopping centre car park narrowly avoids lengthy prison stint

A Queensland parolee caught selling cannabis out of the back of his Jeep in a shopping centre car park has narrowly avoided spending the rest of the year in an NT jail.

A ROAD-TRIPPING Queensland parolee caught “red handed” selling cannabis out of the back of his Jeep in the car park of Nhulunbuy’s main shopping centre has narrowly avoided spending the rest of the year in a Territory jail.

John Anthony Craig Williams pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to possessing and supplying cannabis after setting up shop in the car park on April 13 this year and peddling his illicit merchandise for $100 a gram.

The court heard Williams and his banana bending co-offender Roderick James Cameron were on a “road trip” through the NT when they bought more than 400g of cannabis and hid it in the Jeep.

After roping in a local man at Gapuwiyak to drive them to Nhulunbuy, the two men divided the drugs into deal bags weighing about 1.5g each.

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At about 10am the next morning, Williams and Cameron drove to the Endeavour Square car park in the centre of town and began selling the bags for $150 each.

Within about an hour, police arrived and arrested them, seizing 412.28g of cannabis and $1000 cash.

The court heard that if Williams and Cameron had been able to continue the crooked venture, they would have been in line to reap more than $40,000 in profits.

In sentencing Williams — who was on parole for earlier drug dealing at the time — to eight months in jail, Justice Graham Hiley said his barrister had conceded the offending was “poorly conceived” and carried a high risk of detection.

“I guess it wasn’t terribly bright of you to set up shop in the main shopping area of Nhulunbuy but it doesn’t excuse your offending in any way,” he said.

“I do consider your offending was toward the middle of the level of seriousness for this kind of offence.”

Cameron copped a six-month sentence the previous day, suspended after eight weeks, after pleading guilty in the Local Court to the same offences but due to a legal technicality, that option wasn’t available to Williams.

After hearing additional submissions, including that prosecutors did not oppose suspending part of a visibly shocked Williams’ sentence, Justice Hiley agreed to let him out of jail after 10 weeks on the condition he front up to his parole officer in Queensland within a week.

“I do consider that the circumstances here warrant a little more time in prison to reflect the slight difference between you in terms of the respective criminal histories and more relevantly, that you were in breach of parole,” he said.

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