Shelly-Ann McShane pleads guilty to drug trafficking

An Agnes Water mum who used codewords such as tupperware and green vegetables for her drug sales has been told to think about if she loves drugs or her child more.

Shelly-Ann McShane pleaded guilty to trafficking charges in Supreme Court.

An Agnes Water mum who developed a series of codewords to sell drugs to friends and family has avoided jail.

Shelly-Ann McShane pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking dangerous drugs in the Bundaberg Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The court was told the 34 year old had been dealing in “low-level trafficking” over an eight-month period between 2018 and 2019 in Agnes Water to friends and family.

Crown prosecutor Madalyn Oliver told the court McShane had at least four customers, and supplied methamphetamines and cannabis.

The court was told McShane shopped around for suppliers, told her customers to download secure messaging applications and use a series of codewords such as tupperware, cupcakes, green pain and green vegetables.

The court heard McShane's profits during the eight month period was difficult to calculate, as she made several cash sales and used the drugs herself.

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Barrister Callan Cassidy appeared on behalf of McShane and told the court she was trying to focus on parenting her one year old child.

But Justice Graeme Crow said he was not impressed at that statement.

“I am not impressed with people who are facing serious charges and then give birth to children,” Mr Crow said.

“It just isn’t a good look, it doesn’t work saying ‘I’ve got a child don’t send me to prison’.”

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Mr Crow said it was an unusual trafficking case and because she was “not trying to corrupt as many youth as possible” through her trafficking.

The court heard the father of McShane’s one year old child has his own history of “significant drug abuse issues” and Mr Crow told McShane she needed to think of the future of her child before thinking of drugs.

“You will choose in the future to parent your child, or you will choose drugs, you will not have both,” he said.

“Which do you love more, drugs or your child?”

McShane was sentenced to three years’ prison with immediate parole.

Originally published as Shelly-Ann McShane pleads guilty to drug trafficking