200+ Drug capsules: Former Toowoomba cafe owner Doulina White guilty of supplying ‘love’ drugs

A court heard how the former owner of a popular Toowoomba cafe owner turned to supplying and using party drugs.

Former Toowoomba cafe owner Doulina White. Picture: File / Kevin Farmer

The former co-owner of popular Toowoomba breakfast spot Milk and Honey Espresso Bar has pleaded guilty to supplying hundreds of capsules of the party drug MDMA, which is commonly known as ecstasy.

Doulina Gertina White, 37, fronted Toowoomba District Court on Monday, September 2, and pleaded guilty to 11 counts of supplying a dangerous drug.

The court heard the wife and mother of two had acted as a ‘middle man’ when she supplied about 300 MDMA capsules to friends over four months between May and August 2023.

Former Toowoomba cafe owner Doulina White. Picture: File / Kevin Farmer

Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald said the crime came to light when police seized and searched White’s phone following the execution of a search warrant at her property in August 2023.

“The defendant supplied MDMA on 10 occasions and an unknown dangerous drug on one occasion to three different people,” she said.

“Five of (them) are actual supplies… two of them were quite significant in nature.”

Ms Friedewald said on those two occasions White supplied 250 and 50 MDMA capsules.

“She acted as an agent between two others (and) she was well aware at least one of those customers, a person by the name of Bobby, was wholesaling the drug to his own customer base,” she said.

“She declined to participate in an interview with police and she was released on bail and remained on bail since that time.”

Barrister Scott Lynch, instructed by Bouchier Khan Lawyers, said White committed the crime during “a great deal” of stress.

“She had two children, she had a business that was failing, and she’s working arduously essentially by herself to keep that business afloat.

“It is in this context that she became a user of the drug and then used as a conduit for transactions.”

White announced the closure of Milk And Honey Espresso Bar, via social media in November 2022.

Mr Lynch said White had no criminal history and noted her husband was a fly-in-fly-out worker in the mining and energy industry.

“She’s now abstinent (from drugs, and) continues to work,” he said.

A letter from White’s employer was one of many letters tendered to the court in support of the Toowoomba woman.

He submitted an 18 month jail term wholly suspended for two years, whereas the Crown submitted some time in custody was warranted given the large quantity of drugs.

Judge Dennis Lynch KC told White she would “not be going to jail today,” sentencing her to an 18 month jail term, suspended for two years.

He echoed White was “under a good deal of stress,” at the time due to her business, family, and marital issues, and noted she had dealt with trauma as a child in South Africa.

Judge Lynch said although MDMA wasn’t one of the most dangerous drugs on the streets, however those who aided in its dissemination within the community were responsible for the harm it caused.

Judge Lynch said he accepted White was genuinely remorseful, and there was no evidence that she profited from the drug deals.

A conviction was recorded.