The drug crimes of southeast Qld parents revealed
From a dad whose boy ate his LSD lollies, to a mum who ran a drug empire on maternity leave, we look at our druggie parents.
Police & Courts
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It’s bad enough when you have a drug habit so wild it attracts police attention, but some parents don’t seem to be able to go clean even for the sake of their children.
Some are such bad parents their children also get caught in the drug spiral, such as a Birkdale man who admitted to police that he allowed his son to grow hydroponic dope in the family home.
We take a look at some of these druggie mums and dads, including a bayside father whose two children had to be airlifted to hospital after eating LSD-laced lollies he had thoughtlessly left in a fridge.
Here is a list of just some of the more memorable cases to come before the courts.
ALLIRA JADE CAMPBELL
The Gold Coast methamphetamine queenpin dealt up to $57,000 of ice weekly, buried kilos of drugs in her backyard, poured drugs down the sink and tried to stuff $80,000 in her daughter’s bag when arrested, Brisbane Supreme Court heard at her trial last week.
Campbell, 36, of Burleigh Heads, was sentenced for 13 offences including trafficking in ice, possessing 750g of the drug, supplying GHB six times, attempting to pervert the course of justice, destroying evidence, failing to provide passwords for mobile phones and possessing a used glass pipe.
And in recorded jailhouse phone calls she showed no remorse for her offending, saying: “I hope they f****** try to get me for 10 years... I’m going to get out and f****** do it again”.
During a police search at her home she poured a quantity of GHB down her sink and tried to slip $80,000 cash into her daughter’s bag under the guise of giving her a hug, the court was told.
Justice Francis Williams sentenced Campbell to 10 years’ jail.
MELITA JANE MOORE
The Dalby mum of six was told her children “might end up on meth” if she did not get her life back on track.
Moore, 39, faced Dalby Magistrates Court on February 2, charged with possessing dangerous drugs, utensils, and anything used in the commission of a crime.
The court heard a search warrant was executed at her Dalby address on January 6, where two water pipes, two grinders, scales and 13.9g of marijuana were found.
Magistrate Tracy Mossop asked Moore if she was “leading by example” by having drug implements around the house and using drugs.
“Do you understand that potentially you are going to bring up children who are going to go down the same path as you and engage in drug use?” she asked.
“And potentially, they might end up on meth, as opposed to cannabis.
“What you do matters, and it matters greater than your engagement in cannabis use, for whatever reason.”
Moore pleaded guilty to all charges, and was sentenced to 80 hours’ unpaid community service.
EVELYNNE MULLINEUX
Mullineux was dubbed the “drug granny’’ by a TV current affairs show after revelations the 69-year-old Waterford West, Logan, church volunteer dealt drugs from her front door.
In August last year she was found guilty of possessing dangerous drugs, possessing property used in connection with the commission of a drug offence, and two counts of supplying dangerous drugs.
Her son Phillip Mullineux later also faced drug offences.
Beenleigh Magistrates Court heard Mullineux was found in possession of more than 200g of marijuana, scales and a mobile phone.
The supplying charges related to two men living with her who allegedly had access to Mullineux’s “communal” stash of the drug.
She was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with immediate court-ordered parole.
BEN AND SARAH HANNAN
The glamorous Gold Coast couple outwardly seemed to have it all, including luxury cars and property.
What neighbours didn’t know was that it was all funded from a multi-million dollar cannabis ring.
A court heard Sarah Hannan “did the books’’ for the drug empire while on maternity leave.
The pair was jailed in 2014 after sensational claims were aired in court of dope grown in buried shipping containers.
They later lost their ill-gotten trinkets under anti-gang laws.
In August, 2018, a court sentenced Sarah Hannan to five months’ actual jail time after her original three-year suspended sentence was appealed by the State Government.
She was originally handed a suspended sentence because the judge accepted her children had health problems and needed help they wouldn’t get if both parents were in jail at the same time.
Hannan was convicted of laundering about $650,000 she knew came from criminal activity by creating false invoices through the couple’s legitimate business.
She was even interviewed by a women’s magazine at the time.
The pair had used the money to pay mortgages on three Gold Coast properties, including a $1.1 million house at Riverdowns, over two years to early 2014.
Ben Hannan was jailed for more than eight years.
TAMIKA GEIGER
A 24-year-old Gympie mother with a history of drug-related crimes, Geiger faced court in February on 28 charges including 12 counts of supplying drugs.
She pleaded guilty to all charges.
Crown prosecutor Aleksandra Nikolic told the Gympie District Court messages on Geiger’s phone revealed 12 occasions where she offered to supply dangerous drugs to others.
“Seven of those were codeine prescription medication and three involved small quantities of methamphetamine,” Ms Nikolic said.
Barrister Simone Bain said, at the time of the offending, Geiger was in a relationship with a man who was a “bad influence” on her and introduced her to drugs.
“Being in prison has been a good thing for her; it has changed her life and has been a big wake up call for her,” Ms Bain said.
“She realises that she wants more for her life and for her son.”
Judge Glen Cash ordered Geiger be released on probation for two years.
“If you want to be there for your son, you know that you need to stay away from drugs,” he said.
COURTNEY JADE MUELLER
The lawyer for the young mum, who faced Holland Park Magistrates Court in July last year charged with possessing methamphetamine, argued his client should be bailed because she had a three-month-old baby.
An unrelated woman facing a traffic offence had to calm the infant, left in a pram at the back of court, as Magistrate Simon Young told her that it was only the fact that she had a young child that kept her out of prison.
Mr Young told her that because she had a history of breaching bail and parole, and because she was on serious drugs charges, she should think herself lucky he did not send consider jail.
“I think you just scraped over the line this morning,’’ he said.
“The only (compelling) reason I have so far that jail is an unfair (sentencing option) is that Ms Mueller has a baby.’’
The court heard police found 3.4g of methamphetamine and another 0.73g of the drug in a handbag and sunglasses case at the unemployed bartender’s Tarragindi address on July 22.
REBECCA JANE IANNIELLO
A former Brisbane doctor who was spectacularly taken down by her drug addiction, Ianniello was told by a judge that her drug use could harm her baby.
She pleaded guilty to drug offences in September last year, one year after a judge gave her parole and warned the then new mother that drugs put a child at “mortal risk”.
The suspended medical practitioner, 35, was sentenced in the Brisbane District Court in late 2020 on two charges of possessing dangerous drugs.
In 2018, she was sentenced to two years’ jail with immediate parole after police uncovered 4.5g of pure methamphetamine and over $20,000 cash in a Brisbane CBD hotel room.
The former Sunshine Coast doctor had also avoided jail another time in 2018 after being caught in a car with 30g of methylamphetamine.
She pleaded guilty to possessing dangerous drugs and was sentenced to 18 months’ jail with immediate parole in that case.
CHARLES PHILLIP BURNS AND SHARON MARIE WILLBATT
In a bizarre twist, it was actually the daughter of this well-respected pair who led them down the path of drug offending.
In July last year Brisbane District Court heard Nikitta Marie Burns, 29, “recruited” her mother and father to work in her trafficking business.
Nikitta Burns pleaded guilty to trafficking “street-level” amounts of marijuana throughout the Moreton Bay region over an 11 month period.
Her parents, Sharon Marie Willbatt, 50, and Charles Phillip Burns, 61, pleaded guilty to trafficking dangerous drugs.
The court was told that the couple, who had been together for 35 years, were motivated to help their daughter after she spent her life savings of $20,000 on a failed business venture.
“It’s obviously not right, it’s illegal, but it comes from a place of love and loyalty of course,” Charles Burns’s barrister Nicholas Brown said.
The court was told the couple were “well regarded” in the community and were together for 35 years and raised five children.
Prosecutor Alexandra Baker said over seven weeks in 2018, the couple “actively assisted” their daughter by sourcing marijuana and cash for her business.
Both stopped before police raided their daughter’s Bellmere home in April last year and uncovered her trafficking.
The court was told Willbatt had no criminal history and made no profit from the trafficking.
Nikitta Burns was sentenced to three years’ jail and will be released on parole after serving six months.
Willbatt was sentenced to 20 months’ jail, suspended for two years.
Charles Burns was sentenced to two years’ jail, suspended for two years.
AMIRA OBEID
A Logan mother-of-three, earlier this month she was sentenced to prison for committing 32 offences, including stealing from hospital workers, while in the grips of a severe drug addiction.
Obeid, 37, pleaded guilty to all offences she faced at the Beenleigh Magistrates Court.
The court heard Brisbane-born Obeid struggled with a long term addiction to heroin which caused her to rack up a significant criminal history of stealing, fraud, and drug charges.
Solicitor Kara Lee Murphy told the court Obeid was born to two drug-addicted parents.
Obeid, who has three children, expressed a strong desire to drop the drugs and “commit to being the best mother she can be”.
“As she said, she’s getting too old for this, and just wants to be with her daughter,” Ms Murphy said.
CATHERINE SUSAN MCKINNON
Another Logan mum, with four children, last month she pleaded guilty to a total of 26 charges, 18 of which were drug-related.
Beenleigh Magistrates Court heard she fell into the grips of drug addiction when she broke her hand in November 2019
Defence lawyer Katherine Hansen told the court her client had been a contributing member of society and working a regular job as a barista until she broke her hand.
The injury forced McKinnon to leave work and she quickly turned to drugs, developing a severe addiction to methamphetamines within months.
A magistrate told McKinnon she hoped her children, aged 7 to 13, would be enough to keep her on the straight and narrow upon her release.
McKinnon was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay $6500 restitution. Convictions were recorded.
MITCHELL TOMLIN
The Deception Bay father-to-be was on a month-long ice binge when he dragged a police officer 3m from a moving car, Caboolture Magistrates Court heard.
Tomlin, 23, spent 134 days in custody awaiting sentence and had missed the birth of his first child as a result.
“Aren’t you a mug, sir?” Magistrate Hackett said.
“I’m not having a shot at you (but you missed) the only time your daughter will be born.”
The court heard Tomlin had been on an ice bender for a month and, on the day of the offence, had for the first time taken the drug fantasy.
His defence said the drug had caused Tomlin to black out and not recall the incident.
Tomlin pleaded guilty to the serious assault of the police officer and was sentenced to 12 months’ jail, but was given immediate parole.
He was also sentenced to nine months’ jail for the unlawful use of a motor vehicle and attempting to enter premises, three months’ jail for receiving tainted property, as well as seven days’ prison for stealing wilful damage, possessing dangerous drugs and breaching bail.
Originally published as The drug crimes of southeast Qld parents revealed
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