Drug mum avoids jail

A CONVICTED drug trafficker who was found with a trove of drugs and money in her home has avoided jail a second time.

Police found Tamika Marree Jones, 25, in bed with her boyfriend when they raided the pair’s home in July last year.

The search uncovered almost $20,000 cash, about 80g of MDMA hidden inside a pinball machine, as well as cocaine, cannabis, digital scales and packs of unused clip-seal bags.

Crown Prosecutor Grace Ollason said that police searched the home after a police operation revealed Jones’ then partner was involved in the “drug sphere”.

As a result of the search, police seized Jones’ phone, but she refused to provide officers with her passcode.

Jones pleaded guilty in July to possessing dangerous drug and contravening an order about information stored after she was charged following the raid.

Last Monday, Jones faced Townsville Supreme Court again where her defence lawyers accepted she breached a suspended sentence handed down in the Townsville Supreme Court in March last year.

Justice David North sentenced Jones to four years and six months behind bars for trafficking methamphetamine, but she was released from custody immediately on a suspended sentence, which would hang over her head until 2024.

While police never knew the full extent of her trafficking due to use of encrypted applications, Ms Ollason said Jones once agreed to supply four ounces of meth for $24,000 and threatened nonpaying customers.

“(Justice North) took into account (that she) had shown prospects of rehabilitation and sentenced her in such a way that encouraged and reinforced those steps toward rehabilitation,” she said.

“However, Ms Jones has not taken full advantage of that opportunity.”

Jones’ barrister Harvey Walters said his client had welcomed a child since this offending and that the child’s father was behind bars serving a “significant sentence”.

“That relationship really (was) the difficult point at the time because he was heavily involved in drugs,” he said.

“She is no longer in a relationship with him.”

Mr Walters asked Chief Justice Catherine Holmes to consider Jones’ change in circumstances when deciding the sentence.

Rather than sending Jones back to jail, Mr Walters said the length of her suspended sentence could be extended.

Justice Holmes said Jones did not seem to have taken her “quite lenient” sentence seriously as she breached it in less than four months.

“What I have to consider is whether there is any reason it is unjust to serve the whole of the suspended sentence, which is about three years and two months outstanding,” Justice Holmes said.

Justice Holmes activated two years of the remaining sentence, but released Jones immediately on a two-year parole order.

“You’ve squeaked out of some actual time by a hair’s breadth,” she said.