Trafficker relapses

THE death of two aunts from Covid in the UK was enough to see a mother of 10 relapse into a one-off drug use, a court has heard.

The only problem was two days later, she was stopped by police and detected with methylamphetamine in her system, breaching a three-and-a-half year suspended jail sentence for trafficking ice.

Susan Jane Slade, 54, appeared in Toowoomba Supreme Court on Wednesday to be resentenced after she was convicted of driving with a relevant drug in her system in Dalby Magistrates Court in April this year.

Crown prosecutor Ellen Fletcher said the trafficking offence dated back to 2014, where for a two-month period between July and September Slade was involved in selling methylamphetamine and cannabis.

Slade was convicted in Toowoomba Supreme Court for trafficking on April 19, 2018, where she was handed a four year jail term and released on parole after six months.

The court was told that while under the conditions of her suspended sentence she was stopped by police in Dalby for a random drug and alcohol test, where she returned a positive reading to methylamphetamine.

In Dalby Magistrates Court on April 27, 2021, Slade was convicted, fined $550 and disqualified from driving for four months, with the offence a breach of the suspended sentence.

Ms Fletcher told the court the Crown conceded it would be “unjust” for Slade to serve out the remainder of the suspended sentence in custody.

Acting for Slade, barrister Scott Lynch said his client was born in the UK and came to Australia when she was 14 with her parents.

After she was convicted of trafficking, Mr Lynch said Slade’s visa was revoked and after she was released from custody she successfully appealed against the revocation.

Mr Lynch said his client relapsed briefly into ice use after the sudden death of two aunts in the UK from Covid, and while she was “three sheets to the wind” drunk at a social gathering she accepted an offer of methylamphetamine, which resulted in the positive drug test result.

Justice Peter Callaghan said while he acknowledged her slip back into drug use came from tragic events, for someone like her “there was no such thing as a small quantity” of ice.

Slade’s suspended sentence was extended by six months.