Break-up led to trafficking

Goondiwindi man didn’t handle break-ups well: Court

JAILED drug trafficker Jake Michael John Rutledge did not handle relationship break-downs well, Toowoomba Supreme Court has heard.

It was after breaking up for a time with his now fiance that the 24-year-old had turned to MDMA (ecstasy).

Though he had in the past dabbled in marijuana and methylamphetamine use, he had not become addicted to those drugs but he wasn’t so lucky with ecstasy, the court heard.

He became so addicted to ecstasy that he started selling the drug to others, his barrister David Jones told the court.

After obtaining 250 ecstasy tablets for $4040, the then 22 and 23-year-old had on-sold the drug in the Goondiwindi area in 10-pill packets for $200 each, Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie told the court.

He had used a third party’s bank account to repay the money in eight instalments ranging in amounts from $220 to $900, she said.

The Crown accepted his dealing was at “street level” and that his pleas of guilty to trafficking and two counts of supplying the drug were early after other charges were withdrawn, Ms Petrie said.

The 24-year-old had only one other entry on his criminal history which was the serious offence of arson arising from his torching the car of his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend during what Ms Petrie described as a drunken revenge attack when he was 17 years of age.

Mr Jones said his client was a hard worker and that he had paid the total $14,000 damage and restitution ordered for that arson.

His client had started using ecstasy for the depression he suffered after the break-up with his fiance who was in court supporting him along with his mother and step-father, he said.

Since his arrest his client had stopped using drugs which was supported by a clean drug test certificate handed to the court.

Justice James Douglas said while the Crown accepted his dealing was at street level, it was still serious.

“Any form of trafficking (drugs) is serious because of the harm it does to people,” hesaid.

Taking into account Rutledge had spent 54 days in pre-sentence custody after his arrest, Justice Douglas sentenced him to 34 months in jail but ordered he be released on parole as of September 10, next year, after having served 10 months.