Toowoomba mum jailed for trafficking meth on streets of Goondiwindi

A Toowoomba mother who has been on the run from police for more than a year, broke down in tears when she was jailed for trafficking meth.

Toowoomba woman Kim Maree Sutton was sentenced to a three year jail term for trafficking meth before the Toowoomba Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 24. Picture: Social media

A pair of Darling Downs teenagers will be without their mother for at least one year, after she was jailed for trafficking methamphetamine.

Wyreema mother Kim Maree Sutton was sentenced to a three-year jail term before Toowoomba Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 24.

The 41-year-old was arrested in the Toowoomba region in March 2023, after spending 19 months on the run from police after she failed to show up to court to be sentenced in 2022.

Originally, the former Goondiwindi woman was to be sentenced in 2020, soon after she was charged, but the Covid-19 pandemic derailed the proceeding.

At the end of the court proceedings, a surprised Sutton broke down in tears and said would be killed in jail.

She said she ran for a year because she feared going to jail.

Toowoomba woman Kim Maree Sutton was sentenced to a three year jail term for trafficking meth before the Toowoomba Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 24. Picture: Social media

Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald said Sutton’s meth trafficking business serviced several Goondiwindi customers, where she sold street level amounts of the drug ranging between one point and 2.5g.

Those dealings took place in the Southern Downs New South Wales border town of Goondiwindi between March and June 2020.

The total amount of methamphetamine trafficked by Sutton was unknown, however Ms Friedewald said in October 2019 and January 2020, she facilitated two drug deals relating to an ‘Eight ball’ (3.5g) and 2.5g of meth.

It was unknown if those drug deals occurred.

According to Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission’s Drug Commodities Guide (2014), an ‘Eight ball’ of crystal meth had an average street value of $1500 however it could exceed $2,500.

The Toowoomba Court House and police station.

Ms Friedewald said Sutton bragged about her drug business touting a quick turnaround on deals, and also that she was retuning a profit large enough to no longer need Centrelink payments.

She also boasted about being “a couple of steps” ahead of the police and took steps to avoid detection, Ms Friedewald said.

While at large, the Goondiwindi-born woman was no longer using meth, organised employment, and was living at Wyreema with her teenage children, one of which required specialised care.

The court heard a 15-year-old Sutton began using ice after experiencing an unstable home life, and she abstained from it for many years until traumatic events triggered her addiction and subsequent criminal history.

The court heard Sutton began getting in trouble with the law at 33, and during the commission of the trafficking and dealing crimes, she was subject to parole and a suspended sentence.

Justice Martin Burns noted Sutton was only being sentenced for her drug offending and not for absconding police or breaching court orders.

Justice Burns said Sutton had taken positive steps towards getting her life back on track and seemed to be gaining insight into her drug use and offending.

Sutton pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying meth and one charge of carrying on the business of unlawfully trafficking a dangerous drug and was sentenced to a three year jail term.

She will be released on parole on April 24, 2025, after serving one year of her sentence.