Jail to jog memory

‘Drug-addled’ supplier has no recollection of offending

A MAN who sold stolen weapons and drugs was “completely drug addled” at the time of the offending, a court has heard.

Lee Daniel Quinton, 42, fronted Cairns District Court on Wednesday with a seven page criminal history totalling 39 previous convictions.

The court was told Quinton had been on a suspended sentence which expired four months before his current offending.

Quinton was a recreational drug user and began associating with people dealing methamphetamine, then acted as a “go-between”, Crown prosecutor Claudia Georgouras told the court.

His current offending amounted to more than 20 charges including 17 of supplying schedule one and two drugs and the rest for unlawfully supplying weapons.

The offences occurred in the seven months to July 2021, and he had advertised weapons for sale via text messages.

Police at the time were conducting an operation targeting the supply of methamphetamine in Cairns.

Quinton’s partner’s father owned seven licenced firearms, and he had discussed with her stealing the guns and offering them for sale, the court heard. One of them was a lever-action .44 magnum, short-barrelled rifle.

The court heard Quinton was stopped by police five times before he was remanded in custody. Ms Georgouras submitted a sentence of four years imprisonment to the court.

Defence counsel Rachelle Logan submitted that Quinton had entered an early guilty plea and had already spent 248 days in custody.

He had suffered a break-up in a relationship but had a strong relationship with his children, had been working well in prison and had certificates and tickets to work in the mines.

He was prepared to undertake a drug rehabilitation course.

The offending “involved Mr Quinton being completely drug addled, and he does not have a clear memory of it,” she said.

Judge Anthony Rafter SC sentenced Quinton to four years imprisonment. He will be eligible for parole in June 2023.