Ironside drug runner Michael Gibbins has sentence reduced after Court of Appeal decision

A drug courier caught with close to 1kg of methamphetamine in a Bunnings carpark has had a win in the Court of Appeal.

A drug runner caught with close to 1kg of methamphetamine in a Bunnings carpark has had eight months sliced off his sentence.

Michael Brian Gibbins, 36, was jailed for five years last year after he was caught red-handed in the drug deal worth $85,000.

However, he applied to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that the judge failed to reduce the head sentence to ensure it was proportionate to his degree of criminality for the enterprise.

Michael Gibbins was re-sentenced by the Court of Appeal to four years and four months. Picture: Facebook

During sentencing, the District Court heard Federal Police were monitoring drug syndicate messages on May 17, 2021 which revealed Gibbins was planning to supply methamphetamine.

SA police were tipped off to the handover of drugs in the carpark at Bunnings in Mile End.

Police and PolAir followed Gibbins’ car as it drove out of the carpark.

He sped off but eventually stopped in the carpark of the RSL Nursing Home at Myrtle Bank before running away and dropping a brown paper bag.

The bag he dropped was found to contain 993g of a substance, containing 680g of pure methamphetamine.

The drugs had cost the syndicate $85,000.

Gibbins, of Hallett Cove, pleaded guilty to commercial drug trafficking.

His arrest was part of Operation Ironside – a comprehensive investigation that saw police arrest dozens of people on June 7, 2021, through data obtained by the encrypted app AN0M.

The court heard Gibbins told police in an interview he had a significant drug debt and was expecting to get a bit over $5000 deducted for his role.

“You told the police that you did not know specifically what was in the box, but you said you knew it was not, and I quote, ‘teddy bears’,” Judge Emily Telfer said.

Gibbins declined to name the people he was working on behalf of.

However, it was accepted that while Gibbins was in possession of an AN0M device at the time of his offending he was not involved in the broader criminal syndicate on an ongoing basis.

The court heard Gibbins’ gambling and methamphetamine addiction meant he was not able to work and began buying drugs on credit.

The Court of Appeal, comprising Chief Justice Chris Kourakis, and Justices Sophie David and Tim Stanley said Gibbins was previously jailed for 18 months for driving dangerously to escape police pursuit, arising from the same incident.

They said the fact he had recently served a significant jail term for an offence temporally connected with the trafficking was a relevant consideration.

“It was not the function of the judge in sentencing Mr Gibbins for the trafficking offence to review the sentence imposed by the magistrate for the dangerous driving offences,” they said.

As a result, Gibbins was re-sentenced to four years and four months jail, with a non-parole period of three years and five months.

The sentence was backdated to May 28, 2024.

Originally published as Ironside drug runner Michael Gibbins has sentence reduced after Court of Appeal decision