Probation for 20-y-o
THE passenger in an allegedly stolen car which crashed through the front fence of a Rockville home last month has been placed on 30 months probation after pleading guilty to that matter as well as to a series of drug offences.
Clay Ryan Collins told police he had been walking to the shop to get cigarettes when a friend had pulled up asking if he wanted a lift.
Police prosecutor Shelby Larcombe told Toowoomba Magistrates Court that the vehicle was estimated at doing 100km/h on the suburban street before crashing through the fence and into a house near the corner of Holberton and Makepeace Sts on the morning of August 17.
The 20-year-old was already on bail for drug offences after a police search of his home on December 14, last year, had found a total 83.6g of cannabis and drug utensils.
Ms Larcombe said Collins volunteered to police that he had been selling the drug in Toowoomba’s CBD for the past three months.
He pleaded guilty to unlawfully using a motor vehicle and to possessing and supplying a dangerous drug arising from those matters as well as to receiving door handles reported stolen from a Newtown residence in March and to having a tablet of ecstasy (MDMA) outside a city nightclub about 1am, March 15, and to having 40g of cannabis and drug utensils found during a police search of his home on March 20.
His solicitor Joe McConnell, of MacDonald Law, told the court his client had made “substantial” admissions to police.
His client had endured a very difficult childhood and had started using drugs at age 13 and had been homeless for a time, he said.
However, he was living with his fiancé who had children and seeking work, Mr McConnell submitted.
Magistrate Kay Ryan told Collins he was on the cusp of a prison term but due to his age and that he had responsibilities with the children, he would be placed on 30 months probation to include random testing for drugs.
peter.hardwick@thechronicle.com.au