Prisoner on parole tried to cover up evidence of drug dealing when police raided his home

A prisoner on parole tried to cover up evidence of his drug sales when police raided his home in April by dropping his phone in a sink full of water. It didn’t work.

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A PAROLED prisoner who was busted dealing drugs when police raided his residence in April tried to cover his tracks by dropping his phone into a sink of water, a court has heard.

Sentencing Paul William Shaw, 28, in Launceston on Tuesday, Magistrate Sharon Cure rejected his lawyer’s assertions that the matter was a “huge mistake”, instead labelling it a “sophisticated” example of criminal enterprise.

The court heard police executed a search warrant at Shaw’s George Town residence on April 29 and found messages in his phone that established he had been selling drugs for about six weeks from March to April.

In the home they found scales, quantities of methamphetamine, steroids cannabis and almost $13,000 worth of cash.

Magistrate Cure said Shaw had been charged with the lesser offence of selling drugs, rather than trafficking, but she regarded it a “sophisticated example of the lesser offence”.

She said he was on parole at the time of the offence and tried to obstruct police by dropping his phone into water.

Magistrate Cure sentenced Shaw to three months imprisonment cumulative to a sentence he is already servicing.