Michael Gregory Bethune sentenced in Toowoomba Supreme Court for multiple drug offences

Over a nearly six-week period, a Toowoomba man with a ‘deeply entrenched addiction’ managed to build a methylamphetamine trafficking operation involving large sums of money, with police discovering $55,000 in cash in his car.

In just five and a half weeks, a methylamphetamine addict was able to build a trafficking business that could supply up to $60,000 of the drug at any one time.

Sourcing drugs from Toowoomba, the Gold Coast and Brisbane, Michael Gregory Bethune

supplied quantities from 0.1g to 28g during the height of his drug trafficking operation, that saw him source ounce quantities that he repackaged into smaller quantities to sell at street level.

Toowoomba Supreme Court was told the 33-year-old recidivist drug offender and long-term addict was first intercepted by police on August 12, 2019 when police raided a storage shed, Crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy said.

The search uncovered 163g of GBL, and two days later a raid on an Oakey motel room rented by Bethune turned up 2.173g of methylamphetamine, buprenorphine, 238g GBL, various drug paraphernalia and almost $20,000 in cash.

The court was told Bethune was arrested taken to Toowoomba watch house where he was granted bail, which included a condition to not enter the city.

About a year later in June 2020 the court was told Toowoomba police launched a task force to target drug supply in the area, which found that over a five week period between July 22 2020 and September 2 2020 Bethune was involved in trafficking methylamphetamine at primarily street level.

Mr McCarthy said police executed a search warrant at Bethune’s unit on August 10 which found him in possession of 60g of methylamphetamine, small quantities of MDMA and cocaine. A day later a search of Bethune’s vehicle uncovered $55,000 in cash, 140 strips of buprenorphine and 63.34g of liquid fantasy.

On September 1 the court was told Bethune was located with about 7g of methylamphetamine and $17,000 cash at an address in Toowoomba, where he attempted to evade police by kicking out a screen door but was arrested.

In court on June 3 Bethune pleaded guilty to a raft of drug charges, including 11 counts of drug possession, four counts of drug supply, trafficking dangerous drug and two counts of possessing property obtained from trafficking.

Bethune’s barrister Scott Lynch said his client “embraced the business with gusto” but after spending more than two years on remand was committed to changing his life.

Mr Lynch told the court his client had prospects of employment and while he had struggled with addiction in the past was “hopeful that he has beaten it”.

Justice Martin Burns said Bethune’s offending was very serious.

“The period of trafficking, although only five and a half weeks, was relatively intense and involved the transaction of large sums of money and reflects someone who has used their undoubted intelligence and energy to make the most of that enterprise,” he said.

“It cannot be overlooked that the root cause of your behaviour was very much deeply entrenched addiction, which you’ve struggled with for years.”

Noting that Bethune had appeared before him in 2017, Justice Burns said he had much hope for his future, just as he had done half a decade ago.

“If you can direct your intelligence and energy towards staying clean then that hope is well placed,” Justice Burns said.

Bethune was jailed for seven years, but with 836 days of pre-sentence custody acknowledged as time served was granted immediate parole eligibility.