Police pulled into a Mooroopna driveway 20 seconds after a pair who had almost one kilogram of methamphetamine from an interstate drug run.
Martin Buttenshaw, 47, of Mooroopna, and Kim Maree Austin, 37, of Shepparton pleaded guilty in the County Court to trafficking a large commercial quantity of a drug of dependence.
Buttenshaw also pleaded guilty to trafficking a drug of dependence and a summary charge of dealing with property suspected to be the proceeds of crime.
Austin also pleaded guilty to the summary charge of failing to comply with a direction to assist police by giving them the passcode to her mobile phone.
Prosecutor Francesca Holmes told the court about a series of messages and phone calls between the pair between March 29 and April 19 last year after police had tapped telephones.
The messages and calls pertained to discussions about Buttenshaw going to Sydney to buy 1kg of methamphetamine and bring it back to Victoria.
As part of the plan, Buttenshaw borrowed $90,000 from his father to make the purchase and arranged a deal where the money would be repaid plus an additional $5000 for lending the money and $5000 for transporting the drugs.
The court heard Buttenshaw bought the drugs on April 15, 2021, before driving with his father back to Woomagarma — about 50km north-east of Albury — the following day where he was picked up by Austin.
When the pair pulled up at Buttenshaw’s Mooroopna home at 2.42pm that day, the police arrived seconds later.
A shopping bag with 986.2g of methamphetamine — at 84 per cent purity — was found in their car.
A total of $4593.70 was also found in Buttenshaw’s pocket, which police say is the proceeds of crime.
In a separate incident on March 26 last year, Buttenshaw and another person swapped 25 litres of the drug GHB for 4g of methamphetamine.
The court heard Buttenshaw sourced 2g of the methamphetamine from Austin, who did not know about the swap.
The court heard the GHB, however, was contaminated and unable to be used or sold.
The court was told Austin was charged with trafficking a total of 1322.2g of methamphetamine — the 986.2g from Sydney plus another 326g discovered through the phone intercepts.
Buttenshaw is charged with trafficking a total of 1248g of drugs, including the 986.2g from Sydney and another 262.01g discovered through the phone intercepts.
The court heard that 750g constituted the threshold for a ‘large commercial quantity’ of drugs that were not pure.
While both defence barristers conceded their clients were going to prison, they tried to persuade the judge to give a lesser sentence than what might otherwise be imposed.
Buttenshaw’s barrister Jennifer Ball said the high maximum sentence was set for those guilty of trafficking a large commercial quantity of drugs and was to “address the Mr Big’s of the drug world”, something she said her client was not.
Ms Ball said Buttenshaw was introduced to methamphetamine when he was 17 or 18 and working as an interstate truck driver — using them to stay awake.
This fell into a habit, which increased to using 3.5g of methamphetamine a day.
“He engaged in the offending, not to amass profits, but as a mechanism to feed his addiction,” Ms Ball said.
Austin’s barrister Ian Polak said his client had a troubled childhood that resulted in her leaving home at the age of 14.
He argued that while his client had a lot of prior convictions, none of them were for a charge of this scale.
He also argued that the offending this time occurred over a short period of time.
Both Buttenshaw and Austin will be sentenced later this month.