Out of trouble four years but cannabis causes offender’s relapse

His solicitor told the Toowoomba court the 37-year-old was clean of “hard drugs” but relapsed into cannabis use from time to time.

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A TOOWOOMBA man with “quite an extensive criminal history” had stayed out of trouble for almost four years but a relapse into drug use had seen him return to offending.

Joel Aaron Peters had moved to Mackay in 2016 where he stayed out of trouble pretty much and worked off his SPER debt by community service hours, his solicitor Nathan Bouchier told Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

He had also engaged with a psychologist who was helping him rehabilitate, he said.

However, the 37-year-old disability pensioner had relapsed and started smoking cannabis again which led to a string off offences in the North Queensland city.

Those offences included: receiving a stolen bankcard taken from a Bucasia residence on September 11, last year, which he had used to buy an $89 carton of Smirnoff vodka mix cans, $88 in tobacco and $75 for three 20-pack packets of cigarettes, the court heard.

He had also walked out of the Intersport Mackay store in Mt Pleasant on September 11 having stolen a $138 pair of runners which he later told police he had since lost.

Each time Peters was captured on store CCTV cameras committing the crimes, police prosecutor Senior Constable Jessica Lynch told the court.

He had also been found with an ice pipe and digital scales which had cannabis residue when stopped by police on September 26.

Mr Bouchier said his client had used cannabis for back pain stemming from a back injury he sustained some years ago.

He had been clean of “hard drugs” for some time but relapses from time to time and smokes cannabis, he said.

“He has since returned to Toowoomba and is living with his parents and is on an NDIS package and undergoing counselling.”

His client was now receiving hydro treatment for his back each week, he said.

Magistrate Kay Ryan fined Peters $1200 and ordered he pay compensation of $252 to the ANZ Bank for use of the stolen bankcard and $138 to Intersport Mackay.