Trafficker avoids jail

Reformed drug dealer given a chance to prove himself

SELF rehabilitation has saved a Warwick man from serving actual jail time after he admitted to trafficking and supplying drugs in the Rose City.

However, Travis Lloyd Laurie was warned should he commit any crime which carried a jail term as penalty in the next four years, he risked serving part if not all of a four-year suspended jail term.

Laurie was barely 20 when he trafficked meth and cannabis over an 11-day period from January 30, 2017, Toowoomba Supreme Court heard.

The then 20-year-old was at a mate’s place the next day on February 10, 2017, when police arrived to search the house and found a bottle in the laundry containing 4.9g of substance which, when later analysed, was found to contain 2.264g of pure meth with a purity of 52.5%, Crown prosecutor Mark Green told the court.

Laurie admitted the bottle of ice was his, which he told police he had acquired a few days earlier and which he had “cut” with Epsom salts.

He told police he sold 1g for $450 and had used the money to pay off debts, Mr Green said.

Being on bail for that trafficking charge hadn’t deterred Laurie, who was found with 4g of cannabis when police spoke with him three months later.

Police had seized his phone on which was found text messages relating to the supply of “green” (cannabis), “salt” (amphetamine) and “rock” (amphetamine), Mr Green said.

Laurie had soon after left for Brisbane, where he did labouring work and lost contact with his solicitors in Warwick and the matters had lapsed until police arrested him on a warrant last year.

His barrister David Jones told the court a lot had changed in his client’s life since those days when he was 20.

Laurie, now 23, had since moved back to Warwick where he had a job where he was respected and his employer had provided a reference for him.

His client now also had a baby daughter and just wanted to get on with his life, he said.

Judge Peter Applegarth sentenced Laurie to four years in jail, fully suspended for four years, and placed him on the maximum available three years probation.

peter.hardwick@thechronicle.com.au