239 days enough jail

EIGHT months in custody was deemed time enough behind bars for a 22-year-old father of three who pleaded guilty before Toowoomba District Court to a series of drug related offences.

Mark Ronald Colin Cullen appeared by video link from the prison to plead guilty to charges including supplying cannabis, possessing cannabis in a commercial amount, possessing a range of prescription drugs as well as to being found with prescriptions drugs inside the prison.

Crown prosecutor Shontell Petrie told the court the supply charges arose from messages found on Cullen’s phone which had been seized by police.

Police claim those messages showed the 22-year-old had supplied cannabis to three people over a week, she said.

He had been found with 923g of cannabis which the Crown claimed was for a commercial purpose given that it was almost 1kg as well as a replica pistol and a homemade revolver.

The most serious of Cullen’s offending was that he was caught with 35 subutex strips and seven tablets of Buprenorphine, she said.

Ms Petrie said for someone just 22 years of age, Cullen had built up a seven page criminal history before these matters.

Defence barrister Frank Martin told the court his client had actually been in custody for nine months but two of those months he was serving out a previous jail term.

He would return to live with his partner in Ipswich when released from jail and his mother had work for him nearby.

His client had expressed the desire to get away from Toowoomba, Mr Martin said.

Judge Paul Smith sentenced Cullen to 10 months in jail but, taking into account he had already spent 239 days in custody, suspended the whole term for two years and released him from custody.