A woman found unconscious in her car at a busy Shepparton intersection has faced court for drug dealing.
Jacquelyn McMahon, 36, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to two counts of drug trafficking — one of methamphetamines and the other of GHB.
Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Brent O’Grady told the court police found McMahon passed out in the driver’s seat of her vehicle in the turning lane at the intersection of Balaclava Rd and Wyndham St on July 8 last year.
Police broke the window of the vehicle, and McMahon woke up.
Inside the car was a ziplock bag with what police believe to be methamphetamines, GHB, scales, deal bags, ice pipes and empty syringes.
When police looked at her phone, they found “numerous messages” to contacts relating to her trafficking methamphetamines and GHB, Leading Sen Constable O’Grady said.
McMahon’s solicitor Megan McKenna said her client was “not someone trafficking methamphetamines to become a kingpin”.
“This is a person who is a heavy drug user and trafficking to feed her habit,” she said.
Ms McKenna said the situation her client was in now was quite different to that of July last year when the offences occurred.
She said the incident led to the end of McMahon’s employment but said she had since started her own cleaning business.
Ms McKenna said the mother-of-two was “trying to address her issues” and had cut her drug use from daily to several times a week.
The court was told McMahon was also a carer for her grandmother.
The court also heard McMahon had previously had a community corrections order for drug trafficking.
Magistrate Peter Mithen sentenced McMahon to a 12-month community corrections order, which included 100 hours of community work.
He also ordered that up to 30 hours of drug treatment or rehabilitation could count towards the community work hours.
“It’s not going to be easy to get off the methamphetamines, but the alternative is worse,” Mr Mithen said.
“This is the last chance. If you come back for another trafficking matter, I can almost guarantee it (the sentence) will be prison.”