No jail for woman who held $125K drug money in backpack

A woman who held $125,000 in drug money belonging to a male associate has avoided a stint in jail.

A YOUNG Launceston woman has avoided time in jail after police found a backpack jammed with $125,000 of drug money in her bedroom.

Bar manager Jordyn Fenton, 26, had periodically been given large sums of money to look after by a male she was involved with, the Supreme Court of Tasmania heard on Friday.

A Launceston woman received a suspended sentence after a police found her with $125,000 in a backpack that she was holding onto for a male associate.

When police searched her Mowbray home in November last year and found the money in purses and a supermarket bag inside the backpack, Fenton falsely claimed the cash was hers.

Justice Pearce said it wasn’t claimed Fenton played any part in the drug transactions other than holding and delivering the money as requested.

But he said her conduct was wrong because she helped facilitate the criminal conduct that produced the money, and also helped the male hide his actions and avoid apprehension and punishment.

“I accept that your original claim to the police that the money was yours was made because you were scared, that you acted as you did as a result of the influence of the male, and that you likely felt no alternative but to comply,” he said.

“(But) even if it may have been difficult, and though you were used and manipulated, your duty was to refuse.”

Fenton, who pleaded guilty to dealing with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime, was given a 10-month suspended jail sentence.

The money in the backpack was forfeited to the state.