Family and friends sigh with relief as drug dealer walks from court

The now 22-year-old’s efforts at rehabilitation swayed the judge into allowing him to remain in the community.

The judge spared the 22-year-old actual jail time by imposing parole.

An audible sigh of relief rang out across Toowoomba Supreme Court when the judge told a 22-year-old drug dealer that he wouldn’t be going to jail.

Telling Goondiwindi man Clayton Lindsay Mobbs that he would put his family and friends in the court gallery at ease, Justice Martin Burns said: “I’m not going to send you to jail today.

“I’m going to place you on parole.”

Mobbs pleaded guilty to trafficking meth, MDMA (ecstasy) and cannabis in Goondiwindi over a three-month period from January 24, 2020.

Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie told the court Mobbs had a customer base of about 20 people and he had gloated that “he was one of the main drug dealers in town”.

The then 21-year-old came to the attention of police targeting one of Mobbs’ drug suppliers, she said.

Justice Burns noted by material handed up to the court that Mobbs had since completed a Drug Arm rehabilitation program, had thrown himself into work seven days a week on a property outside Goondiwindi and had cut ties with former associates.

“All those things auger well for your future,” Justice Burns told him.

“I’m told you were introduced to drugs by a group of friends.

“They were hardly friends but you thought they were at the time.”

Justice Burns sentenced Mobbs to three years in jail but ordered he be released immediately on parole.