Drug dealer given break

Second chance for ‘highly intelligent’ teenager

A MUSIC-loving teenager described as “highly intelligent” by his lawyer turned to selling drugs when he struggled to find work.

Liam Senior, 19, of Leopold, was fined $1000 after pleading guilty in Geelong Magistrates’ Court yesterday to trafficking cannabis.

Police approached Senior on August 16 after he was seen acting suspiciously behind shops on Kidman Ave in Belmont, police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Kerrie Moroney said.

A search of his car discovered more than 90g of cannabis spread out in multiple jars and zip-lock bags, scales and 0.7g of hashish.

Sen-Constable Moroney said police also found texts on Senior’s phone that they believed to be linked to the sale of cannabis.

Defence lawyer Olivia Callahan said Senior’s involvement with drugs started when he could not land a job after he graduated from school.

“It was quite evident he was highly intelligent, and he won a VCAL outstanding student award from his school, but he struggled to find work,” she said. “He started playing bass guitar in a band and fell into the wrong crowd, which started with smoking cigarettes and moved on to drug use.”

Ms Callahan said Senior’s partying escalated and the small profits he made from drug dealing paid for his lifestyle.

“It was quite evident he was using his intelligence for the wrong reasons,” she said.

The court heard Senior, who had no criminal history, had since found work as a parttime concreter.

Ms Callahan asked magistrate Peter Mellas to consider sparing Senior a conviction as it would affect his ambitions to teach music to children in the future.

Mr Mellas granted that wish but warned Senior he was treading a dangerous path. “Jumping from being a drug user to a drug seller crosses a very important line,” he said.

“You’re young, you have no priors and you’ve got prospects — but all that could’ve been obliterated with this.”

He placed Senior on a 12month community corrections order, without conviction, requiring him to undergo drug treatment.