Fire led to drug charges

TWO men who had been smoking cannabis just prior to their South Toowoomba house catching fire were identified by observant firefighters.

Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard Jeffrey Allan Claxton admitted to police he and his mate had been smoking “dope” just prior to the fire in their Perth St home about 11.30am on November 17.

Police prosecutor Nikola Prince told the court Queensland Fire and Emergency Services crews after extinguishing the blaze had told attending police of seeing drug utensils on a coffee table inside.

A subsequent police search of the home found five smoking utensils, 16g of cannabis in a bag, another 1g of loose cannabis and 3g of ground cannabis, an electric grinder used to chop up cannabis leaf and electric scales for weighing the drug, the court heard.

Claxton, 31, had then failed to appear in court on the charges on December 9 but was later found by police at a Hume St residence and taken to the watch house.

The father of five pleaded guilty to possessing a dangerous drug and drug-related utensils, failing to appear in court, contravening a police direction to attend the police station to have his identifying particulars recorded and to driving with cannabis in his system when pulled over by police on North St on September 6, telling police he had “smoked dope” the night before.

His solicitor Chelsea Saldumbide told the court her client had to vacate the house because of the fire and he had been couch surfing ever since.

Magistrate Kay Ryan fined Claxton $1800 and disqualified him from driving for one month.