Bag contained drugs, cash, loaded revolver: Court

A HARLAXTON man has denied possession of a sports bag containing drugs, $32,000 in cash and a loaded revolver found by a cleaner inside a Toowoomba hotel room.

The bag and contents were found by a cleaner in a cupboard of a motel room at the Shamrock Hotel on Ruthven St on September 16 last year, Toowoomba Supreme Court has heard.

Opening the case against Thomas James Carlin, Crown prosecutor Greg Cummings told the court it was the Crown case that also found in the sports bag was a computer tablet containing more than 900 personal photographs of the defendant’s baby daughter and car registration papers in the name of Carlin’s partner.

It was the Crown case that the bag belonged to Carlin, Mr Cummings submitted.

Carlin, 26, had been staying in a room at the Shamrock Hotel at the time though not in the room where the bag was found which was unoccupied at the time, the court heard.

The cleaner had carried the bag about with her as she checked rooms and handed it to the hotel’s owner who looked inside to see cannabis and a gun after which she called police.

Mr Cummings said inside the Nike sports bag police found four bags of cannabis, a loaded nine-shot revolver with a bullet in each chamber, three throwing knives, $32,050 cash, 11 vials of steroids and 265 MDMA (ecstasy) tablets.

The drugs were estimated to be worth about $20,000, Mr Cummings said.

Carlin has pleaded not guilty to all four charges including possessing MDMA above 2g, possessing testosterone above 50g and to possessing cannabis of more than 500g as well as to receiving the firearm.

His barrister Andrew Hoare told the jury during a brief statement that the night manager of the hotel had a skeleton key to the rooms including the room in which the bag was found and he had been responsible for the booking of those rooms.

The trial before Justice Peter Applegarth continues.