Tasmania tradies convicted for drugs, assault and other crimes

From trafficking ice and other drugs, to a vicious alcohol-fuelled assault and theft, these are some of the Tasmanian tradies busted for crime and sentenced in Tasmanian courts >>

• NAMED: Tasmania’s convicted drug dealers of 2021
• Ex-con was paid $120,000 to bring down the underworld

FROM trafficking ice and other drugs, to a vicious alcohol-fuelled assault and theft, these are some of the Tasmanian tradies busted for crime in recent years.

The Mercury today looks into the Tassie traders who found themselves on the wrong side of the law, and the response of the courts to their crimes.

Alexander Peter Cooper

The Hobart tradesman was found guilty in 2016 of trafficking crystal methamphetamine after a jury rejected his claim that the drugs found in his home were for personal use.

Hobart Magistrates Court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Richard Jupe

Among items found at Cooper’s address were a set of electronic scales, individually packaged snaplock bags containing ice, and at least two “tick sheets” detailing names or initials of clients and dollar amounts they owed.

During his trial, the then 32-year-old had argued that the 60g of ice found in his possession at his South Hobart unit was for personal use.

But the jury found the builder guilty, and he was sentenced to a 14-month jail term and ordered that he not be eligible for parole until he had served seven months.

Representing himself, Cooper appealed on the grounds that the sentence failed to give adequate weight to his rehabilitation, and that the sentence had been manifestly excessive.

But the Court of Criminal Appeal rejected his argument and dismissed the appeal.

Appeal judges agreed that after comparing Cooper’s sentence with other similar matters, they were comfortable with the sentence.

Glenn Barry Brown

Brown, a plasterer, snuck into his client’s home, stealing their guns and $10,000 of family jewellery.

The 47-year-old was sentenced in December last year to at least eight months in jail.

The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard Brown broke into the Snug home in June this year before finding the keys to the owner’s gun safe, taking five rifles, three shotguns and ammunition.

Brown also took a jewellery box, a gold wedding ring, an engagement ring and collectable coins.

But the court heard neighbours saw him arrive and depart and took down his vehicle’s registration number.

Three days later, police searched his home and found most of the stolen property still inside his car.

A judge described the crime as “serious offending” involving a breach of trust between him and the homeowner, adding that the theft of firearms was of concern because they could end up on the black market.

Brown pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, stealing, stealing a firearm, and possessing a firearm and ammunition without licence and was jailed for 16 months.

He was not eligible for parole until he had served half that term.

Drug and alcohol testing generic pics ACT Police

Nathan Robert Griffith

The Dodges Ferry builder was found guilty by a jury of assaulting a patron outside Hobart’s Mobius nightclub in October 2013.

Griffith had pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault over an early-morning attack in which another man was taken to hospital with his jaw broken in two places.

The jury found Griffith not guilty of the first charge but guilty on the second.

During the trial, witnesses told the court they had seen Griffith acting aggressively at the lower end of Murray St, and had physically confronted one man who had spoken to his girlfriend before the violent altercation with the victim.

One witness testified that Griffith landed up to five punches during the attack.

Griffith’s defence counsel admitted Griffith’s prior record of violence was not good, but said his client had made significant progress in rehabilitating himself and was horrified by the situation he had found himself in.

He was found guilty by a jury in November 2014 and convicted of assault, sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment, with three months of that suspended on condition he committed no offence punishable by imprisonment in the three years after his release.

Griffith was also ordered to pay a victim of crime compensation levy of $50.

Picture: iStock

Geoffrey Colin Abbott

The Scottsdale electrician told police he heard his former client’s nose “crack like a carrot” as he punched him during a “tussle” and a dispute over a bill.

Geoffrey Colin Abbott, 49, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Launceston last year to punching a Branxholm man in the face

The court heard the self-employed sparky’s services had been terminated before he arrived at the man’s property to collect his tools and deliver a final bill, in October last year.

The men argued over the bill before Abbott grabbed the handle of the spade the man was holding, starting a “tussle”.

Abbott punched the man in the face, fracturing his left eye socket and nose and causing swelling, bruising and bleeding.

The victim was taken to the Launceston General Hospital for treatment and later required surgery to repair his eye socket.

Abbott was convicted and $3000 and sentenced to five months imprisonment, wholly suspended for 18 months.

Fabian James Ackerley Trueman

Trueman, a former electrician with Aurora in Tasmania, was caught with 54.8g of methamphetamines in a Hannah Montana snaplock bag in his van in Hobart in January 2011.

The court heard the then 28-year-old bodybuilder from Queensland had conducted a number of drug deals which were detected by an undercover police operation.

He and his supplier used a code, referring to “beers” or “crayfish” when talking to each other.

But police were tapping his phone, had a GPS tracker on his work van and were filming him when he allegedly picked up drugs.

Trueman would call a ­Nugent property and arrange to “catch up for a couple” or “a three pack” at the pub.

He would then pick up the drugs from a drop-off point.

Trueman was found guilty in 2015 of trafficking methamphetamines and was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of five months.