A woman on Centrelink had nearly $40,000 move through her bank account while running a methylamphetamine trafficking business from her Burnie shed, a court has heard.
Tori Rhonda Summers, 30, has avoided immediate jail over the operation, which she kept running even after police raided her home and she was charged and bailed.
Summers pleaded guilty to trafficking a controlled substance and a number of related drug offences. She was sentenced in the Supreme Court on July 28.
Police searched her Burnie home on April 16, 2025 and found 129.4 grams of methylamphetamine worth up to $64,700, along with cannabis, cash, GHB, scales and tick sheets recording drug sales.
Summers admitted selling the drug but was evasive with police. She claimed she only sold to people she knew and had done so to pay for surgery for her dog.
Justice Tamara Jago said Summers’ seized phone contradicted that account, showing she was selling to numerous people and had recruited two others to deal for her.
Summers continued trafficking after her arrest.
In May 2025, police caught her alleged supplier stepping off the Spirit of Tasmania with a large quantity of meth and a phone navigating to Summers’ address, Jago said.
Later searches uncovered thousands of dollars in cash, more drugs and CCTV footage showing Summers handling meth and money.
Her bank account showed nearly $40,000 flowing through it while she was receiving Centrelink payments.
Jago said Summers ran a “regular and continuous” trafficking business between January and August 2025 and profited from it.
The judge said Summers had told the author of a report provided to the court that she “enjoyed the financial freedom” her offending gave her.
“It is a seriously aggravating aspect of your criminal conduct that you continued to traffick in methylamphetamine, despite the earlier police searches and despite being on bail for charges pertaining to your sale of methylamphetamine,” the judge said.
“It shows, in my view, an arrogant disregard for the law and a persistent willingness to profit from distributing a drug that causes great harm within our community.”
Summers started using cannabis at 15 and was addicted to meth by 19, using up to two grams a day at her worst, the court heard.
Jago handed her a drug treatment order with a 15-month jail term that she will not have to serve if she successfully completes rehabilitation.
She warned that failing to comply with the program would almost certainly send Summers to prison.
