Car ruckus ends in jail

A DRUG bust that landed a paroled ice trafficker back in the slammer started with a stoush over a panel van.

Gregory Peter Betts had tasted freedom last year after he had been released from a nine-year stay at Lotus Glen Correctional Centre for trafficking methamphetamines in 2012.

The career criminal had been pinched after trying to smuggle ice that was “secreted internally” on a flight from Sydney to Cairns.

Betts had been identified as the mastermind in a trafficking ring exposed in a police operation called “Ice Bulletin”. In May 2018 he was rearrested on the Tablelands when police found a gaffertaped bundle of meth stashed in a loose audio speaker in the car Betts was driving.

Crown prosecutor Ed Coker told Cains Supreme Court Betts had initially feigned ignorance about the meth, which was later weighed at 8.1g and found to be 75.9 per cent pure.

“The amount was above street level, had an inherent commerciality and had the potential to be shared,” Mr Coker said.

Betts, 43, was wearing an ankle tracker when he attended the Tablelands address to retrieve the panel van that he believed was being held by an acquaintance in the drug world.

“He was told it was sold and from that point their fight spilled out on to the street,” James Sheridan, defending, said.

“Betts’ friend said ‘listen, this is all I have got, you can have it’.”

Mr Sheridan called the decision “absolute stupidity”.

Having paid for the van with a fist full of meth, Betts could not turn his windfall into cash before police – alerted by the fight – arrived and searched his car.

“He hadn’t thought about what he was going to do with it, he had no money,” Mr Sheridan said.

“He accepted it in the heat of the argument – he knew he shouldn't have had it, that’s why he secreted it into the speaker.”

Justice James Henry said it was “extraordinary” that Betts would take payment in a drug – one that landed him in jail in the first place – while on parole and wearing a tracker.

“Not only did he know that he was on parole, he had a constant reminder,” Justice Henry said.

He sentenced Betts to six months in jail including one day time served, to be completed after his current sentence.

THE AMOUNT WAS ABOVE STREET LEVEL, HAD AN INHERENT COMMERCIALITY AND HAD THE POTENTIAL TO BE SHARED CROWN PROSECUTOR ED COKER