Tarah Fornier, Steven Anderson: Couple sentenced over drug dealing across Far North Qld
A drug trafficker and a meth dealer, whose partner was fatally shot by her brother, “teamed up” their trafficking businesses and started a relationship while moving meth from one end of the state to the other, a court has heard.
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A drug trafficker and a meth dealer, whose partner was fatally shot by her brother, “teamed up” their trafficking businesses and started a relationship while moving meth from one end of the state to the other, a court has heard.
Tarah Jane Fornier, 26, from the Tablelands, and Steven John Anderson, 44, from South East Queensland, both pleaded guilty to a number of drug possession, supply and trafficking charges in the Supreme Court in Cairns on Monday.
The court heard the pair, who both ran separate meth-trafficking operations, had “teamed up” when they had started a relationship after Anderson was released on parole in Far North Queensland.
Crown prosecutor Emily Thambyah told the court both defendants had histories of drug charges, with Anderson previously sentenced in Brisbane Supreme Court to seven years in prison on meth-trafficking charges in 2020.
At that time, Anderson was the subject of a 12-month police investigation into drugs being sold in the South Burnett and Cherbourg regions.
The court heard he had been caught after bragging about how much money he was making to undercover police officers while selling them guns and drugs.
At that sentencing the court was told Anderson had told undercover officers he had threatened to “hack fingers off” with a machete and that anyone who went to the police would be “dead before they could testify”.
Ms Thambyah told the court Anderson had been released on parole, only to reoffend and be placed back in custody.
He was then given parole and he recommenced his trafficking business a week later in Far North Queensland.
The court heard it was on his release from parole that he met Fornier, who was running her own trafficking business on the Tablelands.
Ms Thambyah said the pair were not “co-accused” as such, but had operated their businesses separately for the most part.
“They combined forces, shared information and shared some profits,” Ms Thambyah said.
“Fornier also took over recouping some debts owed to Anderson when he was arrested.”
She said Fornier’s trafficking period lasted about 11 months and continued despite police intervention, an arrest and being placed on bail.
She said she had about 40 people within her customer base and bank records indicated a turnover of about $280,000.
Ms Thambyah said her offending progressed after Anderson’s arrest when she used his contacts to organise a shipment of 10 ounces of meth from South East Queensland and attempted to set up a weekly delivery of 10 ounces before she too was arrested.
She said Anderson’s trafficking period lasted about one month before he was arrested, calling it an “escalation” and “short, sharp and serious” in which he accrued substantial debts.
She said he continued to try and operate the business while on remand from prison, with phone calls, including to Fornier, who told him she was “smart enough not to get caught”.
Fornier’s defence counsel, Martin Longhurst, said it was easy to lose sight of his client’s young age at the time – 23.
He told the court she had an incredibly disadvantaged background.
“For the previous decade she had been in toxic relationships,” Mr Longhurst said.
“Two exes before Mr Anderson she was introduced to drugs and she starts getting heavily involved.”
Mr Longhurst said she found herself in what she thought was a more stable relationship with her brother’s best friend.
He said Fornier and her mother were later bashed by an acquaintance of her deceased partner to the point she had to go to hospital for surgery.
“These are all matters that happened to her when other people are celebrating their 21st,” he said.
“She is a complex and vulnerable person and along comes Mr Anderson 18 years senior to my client and a well-practised drug dealer.”
On her trafficking before Anderson became involved, Mr Longhurst said Fornier was selling “points” to “the most immoral of people you can think of. She is not some hedonistic Pablo Escobar”.
Anderson’s defence counsel, Rachel Logan, disputed the assertion from Mr Longhurst that the relationship between the pair was one of control or domestic violence.
She told the court, up until eight years ago, he had been living a law-abiding life in the Kingaroy region.
She said the father of three and concreting business owner was introduced to meth after the breakdown of a relationship and eventually was using a gram a day.
“He is acutely aware of how his conduct had affected the community around him,” she said.
She said Anderson never asked Fornier to take over his business when he was incarcerated to pay off his debts to his southern suppliers, just providing instructions to collect some debts for him.
Justice Lincoln Crowley said it was clear the main motivation was profit, calling the operations relatively unsophisticated.
He referenced the traumatic life experiences Fornier had suffered and the effects on her mental health and culpability, sentencing her to seven years’ imprisonment, with a parole eligibility date after another year in custody.
Highlighting Anderson’s previous trafficking convictions, Justice Crowley sentenced him to nine years’ imprisonment, with a parole eligibility date of June 5, 2028.
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Originally published as Tarah Fornier, Steven Anderson: Couple sentenced over drug dealing across Far North Qld
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