Drug dealing from his first day of parole

A 24-YEAR-OLD father of two had started a drug trafficking business the very day a Toowoomba court had placed him on parole for drug offending., the city’s Supreme Court has been told.

Lachlan David McCaul was subject to the parole sentence and a probation order for previous drug offending when he engaged in trafficking predominantly methylamphetamine over a six-month period from May 2 last year.

He had also supplied cannabis and MDMA (ecstasy), the court heard.

Crown prosecutor Mark Green told the court McCaul had at least 37 customers and among the hundreds of potential supplies the prosecution submitted he had made at least 150 actual drug deals.

His customers were primarily in Toowoomba though he had posted drugs to a customer in Roma and had supplied to people in the Lockyer Valley.

Mr Green said it appeared the dealer had been able to access large amounts of drug and the biggest deal had been 12g of meth which he had sold for $2100.

Mr Green said McCaul had pushed his customers to buy drugs including a mother of a new born baby and his operation was so brazen that because he didn’t have a vehicle he had his customers pick up their drugs from his home.

McCaul pleaded guilty to trafficking in dangerous drugs and to 15 counts of supplying a dangerous drug.

His barrister David Jones told the court his client had self medicated with drugs after his partner left him because of his drug use and took their two children with her.

His client had endured a “traumatic childhood” and had started using cannabis as a child, he said.

Justice Peter Callaghan told McCaul the courts had given him opportunities to take a different path.

“But you’ve thrown them all away,” he said.

Justice Callaghan sentenced McCaul to six years in jail but declared 153 days presentence custody as time served under the sentence and ordered he be eligible for parole as of May 7 next year.