By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A DRUG addict has pleaded guilty of trafficking after he and a driver were found asleep in a stationary car with methamphetamines and GHB in the middle of Princes Highway, Pakenham, on 1 July.
Rob Wilson, aged in his thirties, was found in the passenger seat with two containers of what appeared to be GHB, multiple deal bags and a small set of scales on his person, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told on 11 July.
Elsewhere in the car was eight grams of a substance believed to be ice with a mobile phone. GHB was also found in a car door pocket, and further ice in the passenger footwell, police alleged.
Wilson also pleaded guilty to breaking into a Beaconsfield garden tools business with a co-accused and trying to pry open a shipping container in the business’ yard in December.
He also was charged with his second-ever charge of drug-driving on methamphetamine after colliding with a parked car in June 2015.
Wilson’s lawyer told the court that Wilson’s offending stemmed from several years of ice use, but was “not your typical drug related offender”.
Wilson was “self-aware”, studying for a conservation management diploma, had strong parental support and had long work history as a chef and toiling in WA mines.
He hadn’t coped well with his remand in Melbourne Assessment Prison since his arrest 10 days earlier, the court was told.
A mental health nurse had described Wilson as “frightened” and under “a great deal of distress”, Wilson’s lawyer said.
“It’s given him another very good reason to kick the drugs and get on with the rest of his life,” the lawyer said.
“It will take a quantum shift in his social circle … but it’s something he’s prepared to take a crack at.”
By re-offending, Wilson had also breached a community corrections order handed down in December, though he was on track to complete 250 hours of unpaid work as part of the order.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen ordered Wilson to complete the remaining 108.5 hours of work, noting he was surprised how much work had been achieved.
Mr Vandersteen said Wilson was part of an increasingly typical offender category, aged in their thirties and getting addicted to ice.
“You’re not a violent individual. You’re just hopeless on the drugs.”
Wilson was re-sentenced to a new 18-month supervised community corrections order with judicial monitoring.
His 10 days in remand was declared as time served, and he was disqualified from driving for two years.
