A Tasmanian man has been jailed for 21 months after police caught him transporting almost half a kilogram of methylamphetamine across the state.
Steven Donald Ewart, 56, pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance and was sentenced in the Supreme Court on August 11.
The court heard police pulled over his black Audi on the Midland Highway just south of Campbell Town around 4:45pm on May 23, 2025.
His partner was in the passenger seat. Under the driver’s seat, officers found a cryovac package holding 499 grams of the drug.
Ewart had picked it up earlier that afternoon at Brighton in Hobart’s northern suburbs and was driving it back to Launceston.
The court heard he took on the job to clear a drug debt of about $10,000, in return for the debt being forgiven.
He said he was worried about what might happen if he refused.
Ewart first denied knowing anything about the drug and lied to police about how he came to have it.
He later accepted he was moving it believing someone else planned to sell it.
The state agreed he did not intend to sell it himself.
Justice Robert Pearce said the quantity was significant. Sold in small deals to users, the drug could have returned almost $350,000.
Pearce said the trade in methylamphetamine “causes terrible harm” and those who traffic in illicit drugs “should expect harsh punishment”.
The court heard Ewart ran his own plastering business until a 2018 workplace injury left him with chronic pain and arthritis.
He now receives a disability pension and began using methylamphetamine after the incident.
Pearce declined to make a drug treatment order. He said that for trafficking, “deterrence, denunciation and punishment are the dominant sentencing factors”.
Ewart must serve at least half his sentence before he can apply for parole.
