Billy Jay Gimm sentenced in Toowoomba Supreme Court for trafficking methylamphetamine

In a letter read to the court, a 31-year-old ice addict that sold the drug to feed his habit said ‘not a night goes by’ where he doesn’t think about how he ‘destroyed’ his life.

A judge that had been coming to Toowoomba for seven years, and sentenced countless drug offenders, said no-one had ever apologised to the community for their harmful actions.

That was until Billy Jay Gimm’s heartfelt letter to the court was tendered.

The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to trafficking methylamphetamine, and two charges of supplying gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in Toowoomba Supreme Court on Thursday.

The court was told Gimm had a long history of drug-related offending, which started with supplying cannabis in 2016 and escalated when in 2019 he was sentenced and convicted for possessing more than 100g of methylamphetamine after a police raid on his home.

Crown prosecutor Ellen Fletcher said Gimm was sentenced to four years behind bars for that offence in March 2019, but soon after he was released on parole in August he was back on ice, and his drug offending continued.

“Within four months of his release he was testing positive to methylamphetamine and amphetamine in the urine testing done by Community Corrections,” she said.

Ms Fletcher told the court Gimm trafficked for just shy of four weeks from January 29 and he did not desist from offending until he was arrested on February 23.

Billy Jay Gimm, 31, was sentenced in Toowoomba Supreme Court after pleading guilty to trafficking methylamphetamine.

Gimm had one primary supplier, and Ms Fletcher said he had a client base of 16 customers that he would regularly sell street levels to, between 0.1g and 7g, to help support his own addiction to the drug.

Barrister Scott Lynch, defending Gimm, submitted that his client began using drugs at the age of 12 following years of abuse he allegedly suffered while at school near Jimboomba.

Mr Lynch said that by 2015 Gimm was using hard drugs, and a workplace injury saw him unable to continue work in transport at a gas rig.

A father of four kids, Mr Lynch read a letter from his client to the court where he said not a night went by where he didn’t think about how his actions “destroyed” his life.

“I know now due to many counselling sessions that me using and selling drugs to support my drug addiction whilst in the community has a major ripple effect that spreads heartache and pain on other families,” the letter stated.

“I think about how I lost everything and how many other lives this may have happened to also. I can’t take back what I have done, and I have nightmares over losing my family.”

Mr Lynch said Gimm intended to continue rehabilitation and further training courses while in custody, having recently completed a Certificate I in engineering.

Justice Martin Burns said he was impressed by Gimm’s “level of insight” into his offending.

“It demonstrated a much deeper level of insight as you appreciated the effect your activities had on other families … certainly in the sentences that I’ve presided over in this city the last seven years you’re the first person who has at least stated clearly an apology to the community for what you did,” Justice Burns said.

Gimm was convicted and handed a three-year prison sentence, suspended for four years, as well as three years probation.

Given Gimm had to serve out the remainder of the prison term imposed in 2019, as the trafficking offences took place while he was on parole, he will be eligible for release in February, 9 2022.