Charters Towers drug dealer Phillip Haskins boasted his products were ‘top shelf’ to customers

A Charters Towers drug dealer realised the jig was up when police came knocking on his door jumped out of a window trying to escape.

A ‘LIVELY’ Charters Towers drug dealer who realised the jig was up when police came knocking on his door jumped out of a window trying to escape.

Phillip John Haskins walked on the right side of the law for all but three months after he was released on parole for drug trafficking in 2019 before he took up the nefarious enterprise again.

He appeared before Justice David North in Townsville Supreme Court after spending 952 days on remand, and pleaded guilty to multiple counts of supplying dangerous drugs as well as trafficking dangerous drugs.

The court heard Haskins sold or offered to sell drugs 41 times to 22 customers, during a two-month window from October to December 2019.

Haskins had at one point offered to sell a kilo of marijuana to a customer, and boasted his products were “top shelf”.

Phillip Haskins has spent more than 900 days behind bars.

Crown Prosecutor Shannon Sutherland said Haskins had also in 2019 been handed a five-year sentence for a 12 month drug trafficking stint, and that his drug offending history stretched back to 1993.

The sentence is set to expire in mid August, with the court hearing Haskins had served four-and-a-half years of that order.

Ms Sutherland said when police knocked on Haskins’ door he didn’t answer, and after forcing entry into the property, he jumped out of a window.

But his getaway attempt was short lived and he was caught in the backyard.

The court also heard Haskins told police he didn’t know how to use his phone which later subject to a download.

“He denied living at that address and did not provide the pin code for his phone,” Ms Sutherland said.

Defence Barrister Ross Malcomson said his client wanted to return to the community to care for his ageing parents, and that he had been sober while behind bars.

“He is under absolutely no misapprehension that the only way he can live a life of some substance, and a life avoiding criminal behaviour is to abstain entirely from drug use,” Mr Malcomson said.

Justice North said Haskins faced a “real risk” to returning to drug offending with his history of recidivism.

Haskins was sentenced to 3.5 years’ jail with a parole eligibility date set at January 27, 2023.

Originally published as Charters Towers drug dealer Phillip Haskins boasted his products were ‘top shelf’ to customers