A DISTRICT Court judge in Albury told a Lavington man he yesterday sentenced to a six-year jail term he was a good example of one whose life had been wrecked by drug use.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Judge Chris Robison gave Jonathon Vandersluis a minimum term of three years and six months, expiring on January 16, 2016, for drug supplying, firearms offences and having $8000 deemed to be the proceeds of crime.
Vandersluis, 32, has already spent 682 days in jail on remand since his arrest in July 2012.
He had pleaded guilty to charges of drug supplying and possessing proceeds of crime with two counts of possessing a shortened firearm and possessing a prohibited weapon taken into account.
Amie Sergeant, 29, was arrested at the same time and received concurrent eight-month sentences for the deemed supply of drugs and two firearms offences.
She had previously spent almost six months in custody before getting bail and returns to jail until July 13 with 13 months on parole.
Police raided their house in Eden Street at Lavington on July 17, 2012.
Officers saw four security cameras outside and forced their way inside when no-one answered.
There was a shortened double barrel shotgun and ammunition on the dining room table.
Another shortened double barrel shotgun was in two pieces under the table along with ammunition.
Sergeant was sitting in the lounge room and the television in the room displayed footage from the cameras outside.
Vandersluis was found in a bathroom and police served the search warrant on Sergeant.
Police found a bong, knuckle dusters, cannabis and resealable bags near the lounge room table.
A back pack had a wallet containing $14,430, a plastic bag with 27.7 grams of cannabis, two plastic bags with 6.2 grams of methamphetamine with a purity of 78 per cent, two mobile phones and many empty resealable bags.
Police seized a police scanner in the dining room, a laptop computer, three glass pipes, a chrome vase with cannabis, electronic scales, six mobile phones, numerous shotgun cartridges and many plastic resealable bags.
In a rear shed, officers seized a closed circuit television hard drive, three closed circuit cameras, three glass pipes, a hand-held scanner and shotgun cartridges.
Some of the money seized could be lawfully accounted for, but $8000 could not.
Judge Robison said Vandersluis has a “lengthy and disturbing criminal history of many pages”.
He has been using cannabis since 15, spent any money he had on amphetamines and before his arrest was using 0.5 grams of ice daily.
Judge Robison said Sergeant has had a difficult life, is an impressionable young woman but Vandersluis played a more significant role.
The money, firearms and drugs were forfeited.