A 35-year-old woman sold methylamphetamine almost daily while serving home detention for the same crime, a court has heard.
Melissa Maree Stocks has been jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to trafficking methylamphetamine while on a home detention order for earlier trafficking.
Justice Tamara Jago sentenced Stocks on September 24, cancelling the 14-month home detention order and resentencing her.
The court heard Stocks sold the drug herself and helped her partner, James Mitchell, sell it between April 25 and May 11.
Justice Jago said it appeared the offending began while Stocks was awaiting sentence for the earlier charge. It continued after she was placed on home detention on May 4.
Police uncovered the dealing after stopping Mitchell, who had nine grams of methylamphetamine and $1,160 cash in a backpack, the court heard.
A search of Stocks’ Ulverstone home detention address found drugs, drug-related items and cash in the bedroom the couple shared.
In total, police found about 20 grams of methylamphetamine, the court heard. Her phone showed daily sales.
In a police interview, Stocks admitted using cannabis and methylamphetamine while on home detention.
She said she had helped Mitchell sell “nearly every day for the last two months”.
Justice Jago said Stocks likely sold about an ounce and eight grams, though some was probably used by the couple.
She said submissions made at the May sentencing about Stocks’ commitment to tackling her addiction “were a fallacy” and her own emphasis on rehabilitation had rested on “a false premise”.
Justice Jago said offending while awaiting sentence and on home detention was “significantly aggravating”.
“The fact is, people who seek to profit by causing untold harm to the community by the distribution of dreadfully harmful drugs like methylamphetamine, simply must be punished,” she said.
Stocks received 12 months’ jail for the earlier trafficking, committed between July 29 and October 27, 2023, commencing May 11.
She received a further six months for the new offence, to be served after the first term and must serve 10 months before she is eligible for parole.
