NAMED: Meth mums and dealing dads slapped with drug charges
A string of offenders with kids have been charged with crimes for selling and using drugs, despite the risks. SEE THE TASSIE MUMS AND DADS ON DRUG CHARGES >>
Tasmania
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The stranglehold of ice over peoples’ lives has been demonstrated time and again through the Tasmanian court system.
The impact of this and other drugs on the community has had unexpected and cruel outcomes, not just for the user, but for innocent children.
A string of offenders with kids have been charged with crimes for selling and using drugs, despite the risks.
These are some of the Tassie parents who have been slapped with drug charges.
Expecting ecstasy dad shown mercy with lighter sentence
An expecting father narrowly avoided jail after 853 MDA tablets and $8,890 were found in his home.
Dylan Mark Dennis Jenkins pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance after police discovered he regularly sold and consumed ecstasy between July 2016 and December 2017, and had a gambling addiction, the Supreme Court of Tasmania heard in March 2020.
At the time of his sentence, Justice Robert Pearce said Mr Jenkins – then aged 26 – was making drastic improvements to his life and was expecting a baby with his partner.
Mr Jenkins was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, wholly suspended, and was ordered to pay $6450 to the state.
Police seized the $8,890 in drug sales money.
North West mum of three sells ice worth $50,000 to sub-dealers
Zoe Leanne Whiley had three stolen guns brought to a property she lived at which were to be resold, until the theft led police straight to her doorstep.
The search of her Boat Harbour home in January 2020 revealed the mother of three had also in her possession two snaplock bags of meth weighing 18 grams, the Supreme Court of Tasmania heard in October 2020.
A smaller bag contained meth, ice pipes and foil sticks and she admitted to Tasmania Police she was a user of the drug but also planned to sell $3000 worth of the substance on credit.
Justice Robert Pearcesaid in a car intercept two months later, 50.47 grams of meth and $3740 were found.
He said Ms Whiley told police she had sold ice to sub-dealers totalling between 80 and 110 grams, with an estimated turnover of between $50,000 and $70,000.
Ms Whiley was 38 at the time of her sentencing in October 2020 and had three children between 16 and 20 years old.
Her childhood was described by Justice Pearce as “disadvantaged” and one full of “family breakdown, neglect, violence and serious abuse”.
She claimed to have post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
Ms Whiley had been in Risdon Prison at the time of her sentencing for a previous serious assault charge.
She pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance, possessing stolen firearms and unlawfully trafficking in firearms and was handed a sentence of two years and seven months with a non-parole period of half the total sentence.
Ms Whiley’s drug paraphernalia was also seized and forfeited to the state, with the penalty of $50,000, which was equivalent to her income from her crimes, waived on the assumption she would be unable to ever pay it back and was already in significant debt to Centrelink, Housing Tasmania and various other fines.Meth trafficking mum’s flight intercept leads to suspended charge
A meth trafficking operation between Launceston and Melbourne was busted to reveal the woman behind the crime could have made a cool $60,000 from the handover,the Supreme Court of Tasmania heard.
Acting Justice Shane Marshall saidChristine Joy Radford flew from north Tasmania to Victoria on June 20 2016. From there, she posted two packages of meth to a Chigwell address.
He said the next day, Melbourne Airport Border Force intercepted a package of 77 ice pipes bound for Ms Radford from Singapore to Berriedale.
It was later revealed through a search of the property and other investigations Ms Radford was dealing meth, but also addicted to the substance and had travelled to Melbourne to source drugs as a courier for another person who paid for her airfare – all as a means to fund her habit, Acting Justice Marshall said.
Ms Radford was 40 at her sentencing date in February this year.
Acting Justice Marshall said Ms Radford had a troubled childhood and later had four children with a partner who perpetuated domestic violence against her.
He saidshe was charged with drug use and possession offences at 26.
Soon after her home was deliberately burnt to the ground by a criminal who sought vengeance for her giving police information, her then 16-year-old daughter sustained brain damage in a serious crash.
Ms Radford got more heavily into drugs, but quit them in 2018 when she found out she was pregnant and has since “turned her life around” according to Justice Marshall.
She pleaded guilty to trafficking a controlled substance and incurred a two year jail sentence, suspended on the condition that she not commit another offence punishable by imprisonment in the next two years.
Chef dad returns to jail for driving drug operation
Father of one Duc Van Nguyen had been running Sandy Bay restaurant Duc’s Asian Cuisine when a police search warrant of his home and business in April 2015 uncovered meth, Sudafed tablets, cocaine and cash among other drug related items.
The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard after a positive blood test, Mr Nguyen admitted to using ice regularly and it was revealed he sold more than $200,000 worth.
He pleaded guilty to four counts of trafficking in a controlled substance and two counts of dealing with proceeds of crime.
Mr Nguyen was sentenced in March 2018 to four years and nine months in jail and had $33,507 forfeited to the state. He appealed the decision.
He was released on parole in January 2019, but in 2020, Mr Nguyen breached parole by driving under the influence of ice.
The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard he returned to drug dealing for two months before being found to have $7,150 stashed at home from his illegal sales.
Mr Nguyen pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking and one count of dealing with proceeds of crime.
He was sentenced in May 2020 to three years and six months imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and three months.
The $7,150 was forfeited to the state.
Meth addicted mum stole, sold guns, drug-drove
Shannon Louise Brown had three children at the time of her offending, Supreme Court of Tasmania Justice Pearce said at her sentencing in February 2020.
He said she and another Launceston woman drove to a rural Scottsdale home, broke in and stole 15 guns with a value of $23,200.
Ms Brown was identified on CCTV and arrested the next day, with traces of meth on her clothes.
Justice Pearce saidshe became addicted to meth for a time, before becoming clean and living with a partner in Western Australia.
But after their relationship ended and the man died, Ms Brown’s habit returned and she resorted to crime to fund it.
She was sentenced in August 2019 to prison after pleading guilty to 31 counts of stealing, nine counts of burglary, 13 counts of aggravated burglary, four counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage, three counts of receiving, two counts of unlawfully possessing property, three counts of trespass, four bail offences, 16 unlicensed driving charges, one driving while disqualified, and six driving while under the influence of an illicit drug.
Justice Pearce said while released from prison amid recovery from her addiction, she relapsed, breached a condition of her suspended sentence and returned to custody.
Ms Brown was sentenced in May 2020 to a drug treatment order in place of another stint in jail, with the firearms ordered to be returned to the original owner.
Mum-of-five sentenced to 22 months for trafficking ice
In December 2019 a police vehicle intercept found 19.2 grams of crystal meth – packaged in four ready-to-sell-bags – inside Vanessa Lee Wolf’s handbag.
The Supreme Court heard in September 2020 another two snap lock bags found in her black purse contained 0.3 grams of the drug, while Tasmania Police also found digital scales, two mobile phones, a SIM card, unused snap lock bags, 1.2 grams of cocaine, diazepam and Valium tablets and $3920 in cash from selling meth.
The total trafficable quantity of 26.5 grams would have earned her somewhere between $7570 and $26,500, Justice Gregory Geason said.
He saidMsWolf told police $2000 of the wad of cash was to give to her daughter who was about to head overseas, and said some of the money came from recently selling a car, but her guilty plea to trafficking in a controlled substance and dealing with the proceeds of a crime proved the statements were false.
The then 43-year-old mum of five admitted to police she sold drugs to fuel her own ice habit from October 2019.
Justice Geason said Ms Wolfhad been abusedby her mum, stepdad and grandfather and had been an ice user since she was 26, using it as a coping mechanism from around the time her three-month-old baby had died and her partner went to prison.
The Warrane mother of five was on parole at the time of the fresh chargesand pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
She was sentenced to 22 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 12 months, while her $3920 was seized by Tasmania Police and she was ordered to pay a further $3043.
Granddad and top Tassie bikie’s huge drug operation unearthed
Colin David Picard was once the Tasmanian Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Gang president, but thatcame undone when he was caught out as the leader in a major meth operation.
The then Launceston-based grandfather trafficked ice to areas in Tasmania’s north, south and northwest,the Supreme Court of Tasmania heard in July 2013.
Through an extensive police investigation, it was revealed a mainland supplier was sending large quantities of meth to Mr Picard in Tasmania to then onsell between November 2010 and July 2011,Justice Stephen Estcourt said.
He said Mr Picard’s cash and drug possession at the time of his arrest amounted to a staggering amount more than $500,000.
Chief Justice Alan Blow described the actions as “very serious crimes” which “were likely to cause a lot of misery to a lot of people”.
The immense scale of production and profit from the operation was an incredibly rare case for Tasmania, Chief Justice Blow said.
Despite his income from the drugs, Mr Picard was bankrupt and a penalty order worth $117,800 was declined for this reason.
He pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a controlled substanceand was sentenced to jail in July 2013 for three years, becoming eligible for parole after 18 months, and $10,200 was seized and forfeited to the state, plus a victim of crime compensation levy of $50 was issued.
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