A man has faced court after police discovered three cannabis plants and other drugs at his home.
Clinton Moran, 33, from Yarrawonga, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to possessing cannabis, possessing MDMA, possessing methamphetamines, trafficking methamphetamines, cultivating cannabis, possessing a prohibited weapon, and using MDMA and cannabis.
Prosecutor Robyn Lindsay said police found multiple drugs, including 0.5g of methamphetamines, one tablet of MDMA, 1g of cannabis, three cannabis plants and an extendable baton during a search at Moran’s then-Shepparton home on April 25, 2023.
Ms Lindsay told the court police also seized a phone that contained messages from two numbers used in January that year about drugs.
One was a conversation to sell 1.7g of methamphetamines for $350 and another for 3.5g of methamphetamines for $850.
Moran was on bail at the time of the search and told police he had bought some of the drugs that day for personal use, had planted one cannabis seed that grew into a plant, and two of the cannabis plants were left by a friend, Ms Lindsay said.
The court heard Moran refused to unlock his phone for police during the search, but when police got access, texts showed another person’s name.
He denied knowing the contents of the phone and said they belonged to someone who had “taken over my identity”.
Moran’s solicitor Ian Michaelson said this was “low-level” offending and his client has moved to Yarrawonga since the offences to get “out of the Shepparton scene”.
Mr Michaelson said Moran had been placed on a community corrections order for a previous offence that pre-dated the drug trafficking charge.
Moran was fined $500 and had 20 hours of community work added on to his existing community corrections order.