A Launceston man who repeatedly fled police has been jailed after being caught three times with cash suspected to be the proceeds of crime.
Drew Alexander Jones was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on August 21 to 10 months’ imprisonment, with no eligibility for parole.
Jones pleaded guilty to one count of dealing with the proceeds of crime, relating to $17,750.50 in cash found on three occasions between June 2023 and April 2025.
The first was in June 2023, when Jones sped away from police in Launceston, crashed his motorcycle and tried to flee on foot despite injuring his leg.
He was found with $6,165 in cash, methylamphetamine, cocaine and a Suboxone strip.
In April 2025, he again failed to stop for police. His car was later found containing an unregistered .22-calibre pistol with three rounds, drugs and $8,065.50 in cash.
Days later, he was arrested with a further $3,510 and more drugs.
Justice Robert Pearce said “no explanation” for the cash had been offered.
“In the circumstances in which the cash was found, it could hardly have been otherwise than proceeds of crime,” Pearce said.
He said the offending showed Jones’s “continuing disregard for the law over a prolonged period” and noted it was committed while he was on bail and, in part, under a suspended sentence.
The court heard Jones, who is almost 28, had a life shaped by intergenerational trauma, violence and substance abuse and was introduced to drugs and crime by his family at an early age.
Pearce gave Jones’s claimed remorse “very little weight”, saying his conduct over time was a more reliable indication.
The $17,750 was forfeited to the state. Jones’s sentence was backdated to July 5, 2025.
