Drug traffickers appeal

TWO men jailed last year for importing drugs to Tasmania and selling them from a Moonah shed are appealing against their sentences, arguing they were manifestly excessive.

A jury in December found Garry Maxwell Billinghurst, Christopher Adam Leaman and Adam Arnold Jones guilty in December of trafficking in controlled substances, mainly amphetamine, methylamphetamine and prescription medications, between July 1, 2012 and September 4, 2013.

Billinghurst, sentenced to nine years’ jail with a non-parole period of six years, and Leaman, sentenced to five years’ jail with a non-parole period of 2½ years, appeared before the Court of Criminal Appeal in Hobart yesterday.

During the trial, the jury heard that over 27 days in 2013, a police surveillance camera saw 340 visitors make brief visits to a Moonah drug shop that was stocked and manned by Jones.

The drugs seized on September 4, 2013, had a street value of up to $500,000.

The jury heard Billinghurst, who mostly lived in Victoria when the crimes were committed, was in charge of sourcing the drugs and arranging for them to be imported to Tas- mania on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry service.

Leaman’s lawyer Kim Baumeler yesterday said her client had been much less involved in the operation than Billinghurst and Jones and he, unlike the others, had appeared in court with no prior convictions.

“Had he disappeared out of the enterprise, the enterprise still would have continued,” Ms Baumeler said.

Billinghurst’s lawyer James Crotty said his client’s sentence was about three years longer than sentences for what could be described as similar crimes.

The court will hand down its decision at a later date.