Michael Leslie Phillips had a wife, family, good job but he swapped it for drug addiction

The 34-year-old had it all but he swapped it for drug addiction, paranoia and homelessness. But he plans to get back.

The life altering and destroying effects of drug addiction were never more evident than in the life of a 34-year-old man appearing in custody before Toowoomba Supreme Court on Friday.

Michael Leslie Phillips had it all – a loving wife and family and a good panel beating job – but he threw it all away when he started using ice and quickly became a “hopeless addict”, ultimately leaving him “homeless and drug addicted”, his barrister David Jones told the court.

Phillips, who had no previous criminal history, pleaded guilty to trafficking ice over a 32-day period in February and March 2021, as well as to two counts of supplying the drug and to one of possessing meth in a quantity exceeding the 2g schedule.

Michael Leslie Phillips pleaded guilty before Toowoomba Supreme Court on May 19, 2023, to trafficking and supplying dangerous drugs.

Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald said though Phillips had dealt drugs at “street level” to at least four customers, his offending had been persistent.

His offending came to light when police analysed the phone of another drug dealer and found messages relating to Phillips, she said.

Phillips was then on March 19, 2021, subjected to a search by police who found he had three clip seal bags in his underwear which contained 2.237g of pure meth, she said.

Released on bail, the 34-year-old was to be sentenced by the court on August 1, 2022, but he failed to attend court and a warrant for his arrest was released and ultimately executed on February 1 this year.

He had since spent 107 days in custody, the court heard.

Barrister David Jones said jail could be the “circuit breaker” his client needed.

Mr Jones said jail could be the “circuit breaker” that his client needed to get off drugs.

Mr Jones said Phillips’ wife had gone to great lengths to help him by booking him into a rehabilitation program but such was his client’s drug induced paranoia he believed she was just trying to get rid of him and he failed to take up that option.

“And, it’s unusual then to have a wife through separate (legal) conferences give instructions that ‘the man I love who I don’t want to go to jail needs to go to jail to get off drugs’,” he said.

Since being in custody, his client had been sleeping on a mattress on the floor beside the toilet due to prison overcrowding, he said.

However, jail had helped get him clean of drugs, he had done courses and was working in the prison, Mr Jones said.

Justice Peter Callaghan told Phillips he had risked losing everything but there were sound prospects for his rehabilitation.

Justice Peter Callaghan told the prisoner he had prospects of rehabilitation.

“You now understand, I’m sure, how devastating the effects of this drug is,” he said.

“You had what was by any standard a wonderful life, you had a good, well paid job, a wife, children, all the important things in life and you swapped that for addiction, sickness, paranoia, unemployment and folly, and it all happened very quickly.

“Yours is a desperately sad story and it’s told in these courts all too often.

“At least we can say with your story it is to be continued.”

Justice Callaghan sentenced Phillips to three years in jail but, declaring the 107 days of pre-sentence custody as time served under the sentence, ordered he be released on parole as of June 18, 2023, his 35th birthday.