- Transportation worker convicted of drug possession
- She became addicted to meth after her husband went to prison
A transport worker became a chronic methamphetamine user after her husband was jailed for drug possession, a court has heard.
Kim Louise Parsons, 50, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a dangerous drug and one count of possession of more than 2g in the Cairns Supreme Court on Monday.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads officer had 49.2g of methamphetamine, of which 38.26g was pure methamphetamine.
Crown prosecutor Rachel Boivin said the quantity of drugs in Parsons’ possession would be valued at between $49,000 and $74,000 if sold at street value. Cairns Post reported.
On Monday, Kim Louise Parsons, 50, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a dangerous drug and one count of possession of more than 2g.
The court heard Parsons had been honest with the Department of Transport and Main Roads and would keep her job unless she was sent to prison.
She became a habitual methamphetamine user in her late 30s and by the time her husband was sent to prison in 2020 she was using the drug daily, the court heard.
She was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, with a parole date of October 16, 2023.
Parsons was also ordered to pay a fine of $7,000 in default of six months in prison to be served cumulatively with the fine to be paid no later than February 29, 2024.
The court heard Parsons was persuaded to buy methamphetamine, even though she had not intended to buy that much.
There was no evidence she had purchased the drugs to supply them, that she had co-operated with police and that she had undergone rehabilitation for her problematic drug use, the court heard.
The court heard Parsons (left) became a daily methamphetamine user after her husband, Graham Edward Parsons (right), was sent to prison for drug possession.
Her husband, Graham Edward Parsons, 57, was released on parole less than a month ago after his third drug conviction.
Mr Parsons, who had worked for Queensland Rail for 38 years, was convicted of trafficking marijuana between September 2014 and September 2016.
Police searched his bungalow in September 2016 and found 16.7kg of cannabis, quantities of methamphetamines, MDMA and other illicit substances, as well as $50,000 in cash.
The father-of-three lost his job as Queensland’s longest-serving rail driver in the Far North and was sentenced to four years in prison with the possibility of parole after a year.
A court heard at the time he earned more than $120,000 from his salary and was likely to have earned up to $33,000 selling cannabis between May 2015 and September 2016.
Mr Parsons was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in July 2022
In July 2022, Mr. Parsons was convicted and sentenced for several counts of drug possession, including 50g of methamphetamine, over 500g of cannabis, as well as possession of utensils, pipes, weapons and nearly $15,000 suspected of being the proceeds of an offense.
Mr Parsons was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, with the possibility of parole on September 26, 2023.
He was arrested just one month after his parole period ended for a four-year sentence starting in 2017.
