Convicted drug trafficker Garth Reginald Fitzgerald, 41, found with meth in tail-light while driving between Roma and Emerald

A convicted drug trafficker who carried out a 10-month business with 251 supplies to 89 customers has been busted using methamphetamines again.

A convicted drug trafficker who carried out a 10-month business with 251 supplies to 89 customers was busted using methamphetamines three years later after the domino impact of a family member’s cancer diagnosis.

Garth Reginald Fitzgerald, 41, was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Rockhampton on March 3, 2022, for breaching a three-year and seven-month prison term he was given in April 2019 for trafficking drugs between August 2017 and May 2018.

Defence barrister Scott Moon said after his father’s bowel cancer diagnosis, Fitzgerald returned to Roma to live with his parents and help his father run the family business.

He said his client’s father owned and operated an engineering and hydraulics business in Roma and employed nine people.

“His father informed me if his son was to go into custody, because of his condition, the business would likely go under,” Mr Moon said.

“He has a lot of difficulties now, in particular, supervising nine employees.”

Convicted drug trafficker Garth Reginald Fitzgerald, 41, found with meth in tail-light as pressures of helping dad run engineering business in Roma became too much

Mr Moon said at the time of the breach offences – where meth was found in the tail-light of Fitzgerald’s car – his client was driving between Roma and Emerald every weekend to see his then partner and their young child.

“He was driving eight hours every weekend,” he said.

Mr Moon said Fitzgerald succumbed to meth due to various pressures.

He said his client and his partner had split up and he was now the full-time carer for the 13-month-old child.

“He is extremely concerned about the position he has put his family in because of his behaviour,” Mr Moon said.

He said Fitzgerald had a place ready in residential rehabilitation and was supported in court by his parents and sister.

Convicted drug trafficker Garth Reginald Fitzgerald, 41, found with meth in tail-light as pressures of helping dad run engineering business in Roma became too much

Chief Justice Catherine Holmes said Fitzgerald’s trafficking sentence had a four-year operational period.

She said the reason the sentence was suspended after serving three months was because Fitzgerald had served 333 days in custody which could not be declared.

Justice Holmes said his extensive criminal history started when he was 19 and included a conviction for assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company.

She said this breach was “relatively late” in the sentence operational period.

“There are signs you are taking steps to avoid repetition,” Justice Holmes said.

She ordered Fitzgerald serve nine-months of the suspended sentence with immediate parole.

Originally published as Convicted drug trafficker Garth Reginald Fitzgerald, 41, found with meth in tail-light while driving between Roma and Emerald