Former drug courier Aaron Mark Carpenter breached his five-year suspended jail term

A Queensland miner, previously shown leniency over an MDMA, diamond, gold and cash haul, found himself back before the same judge and this time, his crime was hard to swallow... literally.

Aaron Mark Carpenter breached a five-year suspended jail term when he was caught illegally possessing marijuana.

A Bowen Basin miner who already avoided spending more time in jail after he was busted with a mega haul of MDMA, cash and diamonds has “played the game” and lost when he was caught with more drugs.

As a result Aaron Mark Carpenter breached a five-year suspended term of imprisonment and was lashed by Supreme Court Justice Graeme Crow, who warned him next time he would go straight to jail.

Unfortunately for him, Carpenter previously appeared before Justice Crow in May 2022 on his original charges including aggravated drug possession.

The then-drug addict had been playing the role of a drug courier when he was busted with $94,020 in cash, 26.3kg of marijuana, 70.299 grams of MDMA, gold and diamonds worth about $10,000 over two separate police raids in 2019.

He had been trying to pay off a hefty drug debt.

When the matter came before the supreme court in 2022 Justice Crow had been impressed with his rehabilitation efforts and jailed him for five years, suspended immediately, with the 101 days in pre sentence custody declared time already served.

“I explained to you I don’t normally give persons that have drug problems suspended sentences because they usually commit further offences,” Justice Crow told him.

“I gave you a good chance.

“I asked you to stay away from drugs.”

Carpenter was convicted in Brisbane Magistrates Court of possessing marijuana in May 2023.

Police saw him acting suspiciously in Spring Hill “hiding something in your mouth” – when officers asked him what he was concealing he tried to swallow the item.

23-year-old Aaron Mark Carpenter was originally arrested and charged after police searched a home in West Mackay in 2019.

The court heard he was arrested and ultimately had to be restrained so police could remove the item, which was 19.3 grams of marijuana.

He ultimately admitted it was drugs, saying he panicked and did not want to be caught breaching his orders.

He was convicted but not further punished, but the offending as a result breached his five-year suspended sentence.

“And the standard rule is I must activate the whole of the sentence, five years, you’d lose your job, lose your family, lose everything because of the game you played with cannabis on that date,” Justice Crow said.

The court heard Carpenter had since “undergone some good rehabilitation” and had returned multiple negative drug tests and was working full time at Curragh North mine and was described as a hard worker.

As a result of his job he was subjected to drug testing and had never failed.

The court heard Carpenter had also obtained a lawful prescription to possessing marijuana which Justice Crow was “to your credit”.

Justice Crow said in order for him not to activate the whole of the suspended sentence he had to find it would be unjust to do so.

“It seems to me both parties have put before me material that does suggest it’s unjust to do so,” he said.

“The nature of your offending on this occasion is extremely low level.”

Justice Crow partially activated the five-year sentence, releasing Carpenter immediately on parole and warning him he must perform well on the parole order.

“If you don’t, you don’t get to come back before me. If you don’t perform well on your parole … off you go to prison and you’ll lose the lot,” Justice Crow said.

Editor’s note: This story has been amended to change mentions of methamphetamine to MDMA. Mr Carpenter tested positive to meth in his system during his 2019 arrest, but his drug charges were related to MDMA, not meth.

Originally published as Former drug courier Aaron Mark Carpenter breached his five-year suspended jail term