A Wendouree woman who was found with more than $10,000 worth of cannabis claimed it was for personal use, a court has heard.
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The Ballarat Magistrates Court on Thursday heard twice the amount of traffickable quantity of cannabis was discovered at Carolyn Elliot’s Wendouree property in May.
A total of 519 grams of cannabis, with a street value of $20-$30 per gram, was found in the woman’s bedroom and in bags hidden between the couch and a wall during a search of the house.
A search of her phone also indicated the cannabis was being sold. During an interview with police she said she bought the cannabis in bulk from Melbourne and used it up to 12 times a day to deal with her anxiety.
While she understood how the messages may have looked, she told police she was contacted by people asking about how much cannabis cost but never sold any.
She pleaded guilty on Wednesday to trafficking cannabis and using both cannabis and ice. Her lawyer, Daniel McGlone, said his client had a troubled history dating back to her teens.
He said many of Elliot’s issues had been masked by drug use, but she was currently seeking help.
Magistrate Andrew Capell disagreed the cannabis was for Elliot’s own use.
“This is a lot of cannabis, it’s not for your own use,” he said. “You might think it’s un-harmful, but it harms people and it harms families.”
He sentenced Elliot to an 18-month community corrections order (CCO).
Mr Cappell also warned Elliot if she breached the order she would be re-sentenced on the matter and faced a possibility of imprisonment.
In a separate case a former Langi Kal Kal Prison inmate who hit another inmate with a cricket bat was also placed on a CCO. The court heard Harley Muir hit the inmate with the bat during a cricket match at the Trawalla facility on December 27, 2015.
Muir then started punching the victim until he was pulled off by other inmates.
The accused’s lawyer said Muir ended up serving his full sentence, including the parole period.
She said Muir, a father of three, had since made it a priority to work on being a better father. Having never had the opportunity of being placed on a CCO, she submitted it would be the most suitable sentence.
Mr Capell agreed, saying a CCO would offer the support Muir missed out on during the parole period. The CCO will run for nine months.
