Hottest and weirdest fashions in courts across Qld in 2025
No one wants to end up in court … but if you do, at least go in style. See how these people rocked their look.
Police & Courts
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No one wants to end up in court … but if you do, at least go in style.
These Queenslanders didn’t let their legal trouble get in the way of chic fashion.
So who wore it best in our trendiest court attire lineup?
CONVICTION RECORDED
WORKWEAR
Sporting classic grey workwear, former Cairns business owner Sharm Hess, 35, fronted Rockhampton District Court on January 31 after choking his partner while on a family holiday at Port Douglas on February 10, 2024.
Hess pleaded guilty to one count of choking and was sentenced to 2.5 years prison, wholly suspended and operational for 3.5 years.
BRAND AWARENESS
Former meatworks labourer Tony Leonard Rice, 41, was in May 2025 jailed for drug trafficking after being busted with 136 grams of methamphetamines on the Bruce Highway.
He had 96.2899 of pure methamphetamines in 136.581 grams of substance when he was stopped by police while driving at the intersection of Richardson and Yaamba Roads, Park Avenue (which is part of the Bruce Highway), the Supreme Court in Rockhampton heard.
Rice pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking drugs, two of possessing more than two grams of a schedule one drug, four of supplying dangerous drugs and one of possessing a thing used in trafficking drugs.
He was handed a head sentence of 10 years prison – 5.5 years prison for the first large drug possession and 4.5 years for the trafficking offences – with 761 days presentence custody declared as time already served.
MANBAG
A teenager who fired into the door of a unit in upscale Brisbane following a break up was so reckless he could have killed his ex-partner, a court heard in June 2025.
Samuel Andrew Jackson, then 19, had broken up with his girlfriend the day before he went to her apartment in Newstead in August 2023.
Jackson pleaded guilty to enter premises with intent to commit indictable offence, dangerous conduct with weapon and possess weapon to commit indictable – all domestic violent offences – along with two counts of possessing drugs, possess property suspected of being proceeds of a drug crime, property used in the commission of a drug offence, possessing ammunition, possessing a knife public place and contravening an order to provide his phone passcode to police.
Sporting a coloured manbag, Jackson was sentenced to five years jail suspended with time served which was 585 days in custody.
WORKWEAR 2
A steel fabricator and child sex offender was in June 2025 caught with a phone application which he used to film himself performing sexual acts for women online.
The surprising admission by Jason Scott Hastie was told in Maroochydore Magistrates Court where the 52-year-old pleaded guilty to one charge of breaching his reporting obligations.
Magistrate Raelene Ellis said there was concern due to the offending involving the internet like his previous crimes and stated those conditions were designed to protect children.
Rocking his hi-vis workwear, Hastie was jailed for one month, which was suspended immediately for 12 months.
BASEBALL CAP AND SUIT
Three Gympie men were in April 2025 sent to jail for their roles in a bloody burglary and assault of a couple with weapons including a sword.
Stunned supporters of Josef Bryan Kovacs, 21, Codie Andrew Bryce Bulley, 22, and Zayden Hirst, 23, watched on as the trio were escorted into custody for being involved in the disturbing break in of a caravan at Cooran, which resulted in a man and a woman being attacked.
Judge Glen Cash accepted the young men co-operated with the justice system and believed they were unlikely to offend again but plainly stated the community could not tolerate violence like they inflicted.
Kovacs was jailed for three years, to be suspended after he served nine months of actual time.
Bulley was jailed for two-and-a-half years, to be suspended after seven months in jail, while Hirst was jailed for two years but will be released on parole after serving six months.
CLASSIC BLACK
A Bli Bli woman in June 2025 lost her licence for almost a year after running a red light and nearly colliding with a police car with grog on board.
Tahlia Jayne Vancsa returned an astronomical reading on May 18 after she was intercepted by police following her boozy indiscretion on First Ave at Maroochydore around midnight.
Vancsa was charged with driving under the influence of liquor which she pleaded guilty to in court.
Vancsa was fined $1000 and she was disqualified from driving for 11 months. A traffic conviction was recorded.
LEAVE THE TIE AT HOME
A personal trainer was in February 2025 sentenced to six years jail for “pushing a large amount of cocaine into the community”.
Christian Bong Collado, 39, who arrived in Australia from the Philippines when he was 18, trafficked anywhere from 30 to 60 ounces of cocaine over a seven and half month period receiving up to $180,000 of unsourced income, Brisbane’s Supreme Court heard.
Justice Elizabeth Wilsonaccepted he was genuinely remorseful and had entered timely pleas of guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering, three counts of supplying MDMA, two counts each of aggravated possession and possession of drugs and one count each of possess property suspected of having been used in connection with the commission of a drug offence, possession of property suspected of being the proceeds of an offence under drugs misuse act and buy or possess s4 or s8 medicines or hazardous poisons.
Collado will be eligible for parole in April 2026.
CLASSIC BLACK 2
A woman was in February 2025 caught out in a scam where she duped 10 people out of thousands of dollars on Facebook Marketplace.
Heidi Jane Sutton’s modus operandi or method stayed the same in 2022 where she would advertise a mobile phone for sale and ask the buyer to send either a deposit or the full amount to her bank account. She then completely ghosted them.
Her deception was heard in Maroochydore Magistrates Court after her pleas of guilty to 10 counts of fraud by dishonestly inducing delivery of property.
Sutton was handed a four-month wholly suspended jail term. She must pay back the money she scammed however this was referred to the State Penalties Enforcement Registry.
QUEENSLANDER!
A Maroons fan who was on meth has run the gauntlet after police spotted him driving without a licence in a beachside Sunshine Coast suburb.
Patrolling officers saw Kai Albert Lane speeding in his car in Alexandra Headland about 11.30am on February 17 when they decided to intercept him.
He was charged with driving without a licence and driving under the influence of a drug, which he pleaded guilty to in court.
Lane, who adorned himself at court in a Queensland Maroons jumper in the lead up to game two in rugby league’s State of Origin, admitted he “messed up”.
The Memerambi man was fined $750 and disqualified from driving for seven months with a traffic conviction recorded.
THAT TIE
A Sunshine Coast marine industry worker in June admitted to a violent assault at a holiday park which left his victim with wounds to his face.
Matthew James Porter, 35, was tasered by police after reports of a disturbance at a Diddillibah holiday park made it to police on March 22.
Porter was charged with assault while adversely affected and public nuisance. He pleaded guilty during his sentencing hearing in court.
Porter was jailed for nine months’, but this was immediately suspended for 18 months. He must also pay $750 in compensation to the victim.
ZERO F***S
Sitting calmly in the dock and wearing a tweed sports jacket, Adam Bayard only moved to adjust his hearing aids.
The 81-year-old showed no remorse as the depths of his sick sexual attracting to little girls was read to the Toowoomba District Court in June 2025.
Crown prosecutor Abby Kong told the court that Task Force Argo received information from the FBI that led them to raid Bayard’s Kingsthorpe home in March 2023.
In sentencing Bayard over possessing child exploitation material, Judge Dennis Lynch took into account Bayard’s lack of remorse, his co-operation with police and his age.
He ordered a five-year jail sentence, suspended after 12 months.
RAUNCHY AND BLACK
A painter with hepatitis C was in May 2025 released back into the community after a series of appalling attacks on three women, including two acts of spitting on two of them.
Maroochydore District Court heard Michael John Molloy went to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital on May 28 last year after a several day ice bender wanting medication to treat his massive comedown.
What instead transpired was a series of deplorable incidents which were retold in court on Tuesday after pleas of guilty to two counts of wilful damage and one count each of serious assault, common assault, robbery with personal violence and public nuisance.
Judge Glen Cash took this into account despite the “horrible verbal abuse” and appalling conduct by Molloy when giving him a three-year jail sentence.
His parole release date was set at May 28, taking into account the nearly 12 months he had already spent in custody.
BRAND AWARENESS 2
A Yandina man who stalked a woman before committing a violent home invasion with a knife had to serve no more additional time behind bars, court documents revealed.
Sentencing remarks from the sentence of William Brierley in Maroochydore District Court state the 20-year-old was instead released immediately on parole due to time already served for his violent and persistent crimes last year.
These were retold by Judge Glen Cash following his pleas of guilty to burglary, stalking and using a carriage service to make a threat to kill during his sentencing hearing on April 22.
Brierley was jailed for two years but due to time served he was granted immediate parole.
OWNING THE TATTS
A Caloundra woman has done hard time behind bars for conducting credit card fraud to fuel her lifestyle.
Michelle Louise Wootton left the Maroochydore watch-house in June 2025 following more than three months in prison on remand after police claimed she racked up 20 charges from October 24 last year up until her arrest on February 19.
Maroochydore Magistrates Court heard the extent of her fraudulent crimes following her pleas of guilty to all offences including six counts of fraud, two counts of obtaining or dealing with another entity identification for the purpose of committing an indictable offence, receiving tainted property, breaching bail and one count each of possessing equipment for purpose of committing the commission of an offence, possessing drugs and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.
Wootton spent 98 days in custody until her sentencing hearing in court.
Magistrate Rod Madsen jailed Wootton for nine months but released her on parole immediately, taking into account the time she served.
PURPLE PRIDE
A child sex offender who worked as a food delivery driver repeatedly sought out a teenage girl at the restaurant where she worked will remain in the community after being granted immediate parole in May 2025.
Andrew Hoffman, 37, was working as a DoorDash delivery driver when he met the 17-year-old girl at her workplace and started asking for her roster and arriving even when he wasn’t called on for a delivery.
Hoffman – who had previously been convicted of child sexual offending – pleaded guilty to breaching his lifelong reporting obligations, which included notifying police when he had contact with children.
The court was told he had previously served time in custody and been placed on probation and parole orders, some of which he breached.
CLASSIC BLACK 3
A man who molested a child when she turned up at his house after an argument with family was labelled a “kid f***er” and later violently attacked and hospitalised, a court heard in May 2025.
Troy David Bills, 54, pleaded guilty in Maryborough District Court to one count of indecent treatment of a child under 12 years.
Judge Terry Gardiner sentenced Bills to nine months in prison, wholly suspended for two years.
AUTUMN COLURS ARE IN
A barista told a fib to police after making up a mystery driver to avoid being blamed for her own drunken crash, a court heard in June 2025.
Jasmine Joy Sharkey told police at the scene of her boozy bingle along Bradman Ave in Maroochydore on May 29 a man named “Justin”, who she met that night, was the driver of the car which crashed into a guard rail.
She pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of liquor and driving an unregistered vehicle.
Sharkey was placed on nine months probation and disqualified from driving for 12 months. A traffic conviction was recorded.
NO CONVICTION RECORDED
THOSE SUNNIES
An Image Flat man escaped a conviction after causing a drugged out crash and drawing a large knife in front of an Airbnb host over a lost bag.
Maroochydore Magistrates Court heard how Sean Elliott Burr could not even recall the frightening incident where he pulled a knife on a stranger over an innocuous lost item at home-stay accommodation on December 17 last year.
The 22-year-old heard the outcome for his crimes after pleas of guilty to two counts of drug driving and one of going armed to cause fear in May 2025.
Mr Madsen ultimately opted not to convict Burr and accepted the 22-year-old’s remorse. He placed him on an 18 month probation order.
He was also disqualified from driving for three months.
Originally published as Hottest and weirdest fashions in courts across Qld in 2025
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