Ice in undies man in court

A HOBART man who has admitted smuggling 1kg of ice into the state in his underpants will be sentenced next week.

Terry Henry Simpson, 31, of Hobart, yesterday appeared in the Supreme Court in Hobart for sentencing proceedings after pleading guilty to trafficking a controlled substance.

Simpson stashed $1 million worth of ice in his underpants and tried to smuggle it into the state on a direct flight from Sydney to Hobart in August.

Earlier hearings were told Simpson took a flight to Sydney on August 22, just five days after being released from prison on aggravated burglary and stealing charges, returning two days later.

He was arrested by members of the Tasmania Police drug dog handling unit acting on intelligence from “interstate partners and other agencies”.

Two packages found in his underwear were found to have a total of 1003.5g of crystal methamphetamine, with a potential street value of up to $1,003,500 if sold in Tasmania.

The court heard Simpson told police he had wrapped the packages himself with “Gladwrap and sticky tape” and placed them in his pants before arriving at Sydney Airport.

He agreed that he used ice but made no comment about where he got the drugs from or where they were to be sold, only saying “where would I get the money to buy these drugs, I’m broke as a skunk”.

Defence lawyer Andrei Slicer said his client would not be presenting evidence in his own defence.

Mr Slicer said his client should be given the benefit of a non-parole period of half of the head sentence.

Justice Michael Brett said he did not accept Mr Slicer’s submissions that he could infer that Simpson was not the principal of the drug smuggling operation.

“All I know is that this man imported over a kilogram of drugs into Tasmania,” he said.

Justice Brett will sentence Simpson on Thursday next week.