A Cairnlea man has been jailed for five months for drug offences after a routine licence check uncovered almost $25,000 in his car.
An Nguyen Vu pleaded guilty in the County Court to charges of trafficking heroin, possessing methylamphetamine and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
A sentencing hearing last month was told police pulled Vu over for a routine licence check on April 30 last year.
They discovered several bags of powder mixed with heroin and weighing 235 grams under a loose panel under the gear stick.
Police also found two grams of methylamphetamine and $10,000 in cash in the compartment and $14,396 in a brown leather bag.
They found text messages on his mobile phone which suggested drug trafficking activity. The 33-year-old was charged by police that day.
The court heard Vu, who had battled heroin addiction since the age of 16, had a long criminal history dating back to 2001.
He left school in year 11, had no further training and “no work history of any substance”.
“You struggled at school with literacy and behavioural problems, and fell in with other disaffected young people, which resulted in you becoming immersed in a drug culture,” Judge Frances Hogan said.
“In effect, you have wasted your adult life.
“One only has to look at yourself and see a wasted life because of addiction from the age of 16 to 33 years to know the devastation that drug addiction causes,” she said.
Vu must also serve a three-year community correction order upon release and 150 hours of unpaid community work.
