Miner Jarrod Scott Sharpe sentenced for drug offences

A Qld miner, who was a standout apprentice for Hastings Deering, has had another meth-linked brush with the law.

Methamphetamine generic image.

A Queensland miner who has “skirted” spending actual time in prison for drug offences for the past decade has yet again avoided seeing the inside of a cell after fronting the Supreme Court.

Jarrod Scott Sharpe represented himself in Rockhampton’s highest courtroom on April 28.

Justice Graeme Crow said police searched Sharpe’s Blackwater residence on November 15, 2022, and Sharpe declared he had clip-seal bags with drugs – methamphetamine and marijuana – and a used pipe in his shed near his phone and told police he had purchased a “ball” (3.5 grams) the night before.

He said police located the 3.255 pure meth in 4.317 grams of substance.

“You told police you flipped methamphetamine to three people to cover the cost of your habit,” Justice Crow said.

However, on this occasion, Sharpe, who was on probation at the time for other drug offending, said the meth was predominantly for personal use.

Sharpe provided Justice Crow with a reference from his workshop supervisor at MacKellar Mining.

Justice Crow said the supervisor wrote that while Sharpe underwent his training at Hastings Deering, he was “in the top one per cent stand out apprentices”.

“Obviously you’ve got some intelligence, and you can work hard,” he said.

Justice Crow said Sharpe’s criminal history, with the first entry for drugs was dated 2015, showed “someone who’s got half a brain getting involved with drugs is incredibly stupid.”

The father-of-two’s criminal history was then littered with drug possession convictions in the Rockhampton and Yeppoon Magistrates Courts throughout the next 10 years, the court heard.

Sharpe pleaded guilty to one count of possessing more than two grams of a schedule one drug and was sentenced to 18 months’ prison with immediate parole release.

Originally published as Miner Jarrod Scott Sharpe sentenced for drug offences