Toowoomba grandmother sent to jail for drug and dishonesty offences

A TOOWOOMBA grandmother with a history of drug offending and dishonesty offences has been handed a jail sentence.

Donna Maree Stewart had been sentenced to one month in jail after pleading guilty before Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Tuesday to a charge of failing to appear in court.

Because she had been on parole at the time for a previous sentence, the one month had been added onto that time with the effect she would spend the next six weeks in jail unless the parole board released her earlier, the court heard.

The 47-year-old appeared in custody before the same court 24 hours later to plead guilty to further offences including having about 0.88g of methylamphetamine in a plastic clip seal bag when searched by police on July 21; walking out with a trolley full of groceries from a North Toowoomba supermarket without paying on August 7; stealing a $329 air dryer from a Grand Central store on September 16; having three syringes in her handbag which she had not properly disposed of when spoken to by police the same day; and stealing two chocolate bars and coffee bags from another store on September 20.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Al Windsor told the court a staff member had seen Stewart take the groceries and she had also been identified on the store’s CCTV camera footage.

When she was spoken to by police on September 20 she had made full admissions to the offences, he said.

Her solicitor Michael McElhinney told the court his client was a single woman with four children and three grandchildren.

His client had been waiting for a probation order to which she was subject to expire in the coming weeks before taking up a job in South Australia, he said.

The 47-year-old had a longstanding problem with illicit drug use which she was trying to address, Mr McElhinney said.

Magistrate Graham Lee said he would suspend the jail terms on these recent offences as he didn’t believe Stewart would get parole and was likely to serve out the term.

Mr Lee sentenced Stewart to a total four months in jail but suspended the term in full immediately for 12 months.