Court dishes up jail time for drug chef
A FORMER Townsville chef turned drug trafficker has swapped his cooking apron for prison smocks.
Damien Tosh, former coowner and head chef at Ciabatta at Fairfield Waters, faced Townsville Supreme Court yesterday where he was sentenced to five- and- a- half years’ imprisonment for trafficking of methamphetamine.
Crown prosecutor Melanie Franklin said Tosh had a commercial ice trafficking business operating for at least four months in the first half of 2017.
Ms Franklin said police pulled Tosh over twice and on each occasion found quantities of the dangerous drug, related utensils and cash in his possession.
She said on each occasion Tosh admitted to having text messages on his mobile phone relating to drug supply and an inspection of those devices showed street- level dealing as well as some more limited wholesale deals.
“( Tosh) had at least 36 customers,” Ms Franklin said.
“He had a code that he used, special offers and a quality control to his business.”
Ms Franklin said an aggravating feature of the former chef’s offending was the element of debt collection.
She said there was evidence he had employed a debt collector.
“He had enlisted someone to help him recover those debts,” Ms Franklin said.
“One message said that person was inside the house of someone who owed ( Tosh) money.”
After Tosh was initially charged with trafficking he was granted bail only to be arrested again in April 2018 with more than a quarter of an ounce of methamphetamine in his possession packaged into saleable quantities.
He had since been held in custody for 82 days before being sentenced.
The 34- year- old’s barrister David James, who was instructed by Rennick Lawyers, said his client had slipped into the world of drugs after a difficult time with his business.
“In 2016 that venture ( Ciabatta) closed,” Mr James said.
“As things were getting difficult he was introduced to methamphetamine by friends.”
Mr James said his client had made efforts to rehabilitate himself but Justice David North said they “failed dismally” considering his most recent offences.
Tosh appeared to wipe tears from his eyes as his sentence was handed down. Justice North took into account Tosh’s plea of guilty and past attempts at rehabilitation when setting a parole release date of February 1, 2020.