Chloe Rene Owbridge pleaded guilty to four charges in Gladstone Magistrates Court on Friday

A drug offender with a six-page criminal faced Gladstone Magistrates Court after police executed a search warrant at her Telina home. Her lawyer pleaded for her not to be jailed due to her young age.

A Gladstone woman’s luck ran out on December 3 when she was jailed for persistent drug offending.

Chloe Renee Owbridge, 21, pleaded guilty in Gladstone Magistrates Court to four charges including two counts of possessing dangerous drugs.

Chloe Renee Owbridge.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Carl Spargo told the court that on July 2, about 9.30am, police executed a search warrant at a Mars Crescent address in Telina.

Owbridge, a UGL trainee, was provided her rights and cautions and police conducted a search of her bedroom which uncovered numerous drug items.

The items located by police included 0.5 grams of marijuana, 0.1 grams of methamphetamine, two glass pipes, two grinders, a set of scales and some clip-seal bags.

Further, police found two iPads, a tablet and a phone which police requested access to, however, Owbridge would not provide them passwords.

She then requested a pen and paper and wrote down a series of passwords for the devices, but none of the passwords allowed police to gain access.

Owbridge declined to be interviewed by police in relation to her offending, however, she stated to police the items were hers.

Mr Spargo said any prison sentence Owbridge could receive should not be suspended due to her persistent drug offending.

“This including previous serious offences of supplying schedule one and two drugs,” he said.

“The prosecution is submitting a parole release date of today to recognise an early plea of guilty and her young age.”

Owbridge’s lawyer Rio Ramos said despite her client’s six-page criminal history which contained like offences, she had not committed a drug offence since 2019.

“I would ask Your Honour to impose a suspended sentence with no actual prison time to serve given my client’s young age,” Ms Ramos said.

In sentencing, Magistrate Bevan Manthey said he was seeing too many young dangerous drug offenders pass through his court.

“I have to get the message out there that this type of offending, and the frequency that this type of offending occurs at, cannot and will not be tolerated,” Mr Manthey said.

Owbridge was convicted and sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for 12 months after serving two weeks in jail. Convictions were recorded.

Originally published as Chloe Rene Owbridge pleaded guilty to four charges in Gladstone Magistrates Court on Friday