A Queensland man has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for his part in organising for a woman to visit a prison with drugs concealed under her armpits.
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Travis Peter Holborn, 30, of Toowoomba pleaded guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court on Monday to two counts of aggravated supply of drugs within a correctional facility.
The crown prosecutor said Holborn had called his then partner and asked her to drive another woman to the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in Brisbane's south-west on June 7, 2021 as part of a scheme led by another inmate.
Holborn was already serving a three-year sentence at the prison for vehicle theft and dangerous driving.
The court heard correctional officers intercepted the drugs before they could be delivered via a woman attempting to enter the prison with the equivalent of 11.576 grams of pure methamphetamine and 276 strips of buprenorphine concealed on her.
Buprenorphine strips are intended as an oral treatment for opiate withdrawal but the medication is commonly abused in prisons.
The prosecutor said Holborn had 12 previous drug convictions and should serve three years for the serious offences of supplying drugs in a prison.
Holborn's barrister Ambyr Cousen said her client was not the ringleader of the attempt to bring drugs into the prison and there was no definitive evidence on how the drugs or profits were to be split but Holborn had offered a car as payment.
"He's had issues with drugs since age 13 when he was introduced to drugs by a (family member)," Ms Cousen said.
She said Holborn had attended school until year 10 and previously worked as a cattle station property manager where the remote location had allowed him to stay sober.
"That seems to have been a quite positive time in his life," Ms Cousen said and called for a two-year sentence due to Holborn's lower level of culpability.
Justice Martin Burns said it was important to recognise the drugs weren't delivered to their intended targets, but the plan to supply them within Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre was well advanced by the time it was stopped.
"The smuggling of dangerous drugs into correctional facilities is regarded as very serious, as if successful it disrupts discipline and attempts by inmates to rehabilitate," Justice Burns said.
Justice Burns told Holborn that he hoped he could take up offers of work and accommodation once he was released.
"That won't happen if you get back on drugs, you'll just go back to prison to serve longer and longer sentences," Justice Burns said.
He said he was unable to credit Holborn's time on remand since the offences as he had been serving another sentence but ordered his parole eligibility period to start immediately.
Australian Associated Press
