TROY Rhodes’ taste of jail has been so bitter it has turned him away from the illegal drugs he was peddling to feed his own habit, Wagga District Court has been told.
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Rhodes was sentenced by Judge Phillip Mahony SC after pleading guilty to two counts of supplying a prohibited drug and five related offences – three counts of possessing a prohibited drugs and single counts of dealing with the proceeds of crime ($16,455 in cash) and possession of a laser pointer in a public place.
Police discovered a stash of drugs, including 54.21 grams of methamphetamine, 7.78g of amphetamine, .62g of cocaine and 3.3 of the steroid oxymetholone, after they arrested Rhodes at a Wagga motel on January 14 last year for domestic violence offences.
The methamphetamine was up to 80 per cent pure.
Rhodes has been in custody since his arrest.
Rhodes wrote a letter for Judge Mahony saying that although he had been sentenced to an intensive correction order in 2012 for drug supply he resumed abusing drugs after that because he was not in the right frame of mind.
“Now that he had experienced jail first hand, he wanted to abstain from drugs and rebuild his life,” Judge Mahony said.
Rhodes also told the judge that he had abstained from drugs while in jail and had developed a huge dislike for them.
“He had lost his partner and damaged family relationships as a result of his drug use,” Judge Mahony said.
Rhodes told the court he started using amphetamines at the age of 35 because of the break-up of his marriage and progressed to daily usage of the drug ice.
“He was using 0.5g per day of ice, and selling drugs to feed his habit,” Judge Mahony said.
“The $16,455 … was proceeds from the sale of drugs.”
Judge Mahony said it was to Rhodes’ credit he had been drug free for the past 16 months.
“It is no small thing to overcome a drug addiction and I find here that there are positive prospects of the offender continuing his rehabilitation with appropriate help, both whilst in custody and whilst under parole supervision,” the judge said.
Rhodes was given an aggregate head jail sentence of three years, with 33 months’ non-parole, backdated to September 1 last year.
He will be eligible to be considered for parole on May 31, 2018.
His drug money has been forfeited to the state.