Richard Stanley Ryan and Jade Michelle-Leigh Pervis jailed for trafficking meth and cannabis

A couple who amassed at least $350,000 by trafficking drugs in towns across the Darling Downs attempted the launder the money through international gambling.

A couple who amassed more than $350,000 by trafficking drugs through Western Downs towns over 16 months have both been handed jail terms.

Richard Stanley Ryan, 34, and Jade Michelle-Leigh Pervis, 25, made separate appearances before the Toowoomba Supreme Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to trafficking cannabis and meth and associated charges.

Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie told the court the pair had trafficked the drugs through Charleville, Roma and Dalby and elsewhere over a 16 month period from May 2020.

Ms Petrie said Ryan received “the lion’s share” of profits from the business which at times showed they had amassed $350,000 cash in bank accounts while on Centrelink benefits.

The couple had unsuccessfully tried to launder the money through gaming and gambling links in places like Nigeria and Azerbaijan including one deposit of $64,000, she said.

The Crown case was that the couple had a customer base of about 65 people and though the dealings were mainly at “street level” at least one customer was prepared to obtain meth of up to 1oz (28 grams), she said.

It was accepted that both were also drug users, Ms Petrie said.

Pervis’s barrister Jessica Goldie told the court her client had spent 433 days in pre-sentence custody during which time she had engaged with prison mental health services.

Her client had provided a letter to the court explaining her offending which in part had arisen from a domestically violent relationship.

When told the couple had been transported from their respective prisons to the Toowoomba watch house in the same prison van, Justice Peter Callaghan said that was “an absolute scandal” when the court had ordered there be no contact between them.

Ms Goldie said there was a division in the van but the pair could talk to each other.

Ms Petrie told the court she would make inquiries into how the pair could have been transported together given the court orders.

Upon her release, Pervis intended returning to Charleville to live with her parents, Ms Goldie said.

Barrister Scott Lynch, for Ryan, said his client had spent 502 days in pre-sentence custody and that he instructed that he was “officially done” with meth and upon release intended to live near his parents in the Warwick area.

Justice Callaghan sentenced Ryan to seven and a half years in jail but, declaring 502 days as time served under the sentence, ordered he be eligible to apply for release on parole as of December 15, 2023.

Pervis was sentenced to five years in jail, suspended after having served the 433 days she had already spent in custody, to be released onto three years probation.