Jail term for drug courier

Ran drugs, cash from Brisbane to Toowoomba

RUNNING drugs and money between Brisbane and Toowoomba over a four-day period has left a 35-year-old Chermside man with a twoyear jail sentence.

Police, who spotted Mark Alex Simpson and an associate pull into a service station on the Warrego Highway in the Lockyer Valley, became suspicious and approached the pair.

Simpson had co-operated with police but when his associate became non-compliant and argued with police, a struggle ensued during which two packages fell from his clothing, Toowoomba District Court heard.

The packages were found to contain 54g of substance of which 40.9g was pure methylamphetamine, Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald said.

A subsequent search of their car found another package in the centre console containing $8950 cash and an envelope containing another $1000 cash, she said.

Simpson gave a record of interview with police and confessed to acting as a courier between Toowong and Toowoomba on three previous days, saying though he believed the packages contained drugs he didn’t know what sort of drugs or how much there was of it.

Ms Friedewald said without Simpson’s frank admissions to the other three trips the Crown would not have been able to prosecute him on those.

Simpson pleaded guilty to four counts of supplying dangerous drugs.

Ms Friedewald said though Simpson had criminal history he had no previous for drugs.

He told police he had fallen on hard financial times at that time and was paid $200 and $50 for fuel each trip.

His barrister Scott Lynch told the court Simpson cared for his mother and brother who had autism in Brisbane and at the time was financially destitute.

Simpson had accepted money to do the trips as he had to pay for vehicle registration and get new tyres for his car, Mr Lynch said.

Warning him that any breach of the sentence could see him sent to jail, Judge Katherine McGuinness sentenced Simpson to two years in jail but ordered he be released immediately on parole.