A teenage "gopher" busted running drugs from Canberra to the Snowy Mountains has avoided a jail sentence, instead walking free with a fistful of fines and a warning about easy money.
James David-Isaiah Williams, 19, appeared in Queanbeyan Local Court on Tuesday, when he was ordered to pay a total of $1850.
Court documents reveal the then-unemployed Evatt man was a passenger in a Hyundai Accent that was stopped by police on the Monaro Highway north of Cooma on May 2.
The driver returned a positive drug test, while Williams admitted to police that he had cocaine and "a large quantity" of cannabis leaf in a bag on the back seat.
Williams said he had picked the drugs up in the ACT and was on his way to deliver them to someone in Jindabyne.
"There's no point in lying," the 19-year-old told police, who discovered 117.5 grams of cannabis leaf and 15.7 grams of cocaine in the backpack.
Williams would not, however, reveal the name or address of the intended recipient, nor the person he was delivering the drugs for.
Officers searching the Hyundai later found a further 29.5 grams of cannabis leaf, which Williams said was for his personal use, under the front passenger seat.
They also confiscated a set of gold knuckledusters, which Williams bought online "for protection", from the pocket of his pants.
Williams ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of drug supply and one count each of possessing a prohibited drug and weapon.
Sentencing the teenager on Tuesday, Magistrate Roger Clisdell said Williams had been "young and stupid".
Mr Clisdell described the 19-year-old as "a gopher" who had been "on a path to ruin" as a drug courier.
The magistrate said that on the bright side, material tendered in support of Williams suggested the teenager's arrest had served as "a wake-up call" to dissociate from those who got him involved in drugs.
In imposing the fines, Mr Clisdell warned Williams that the consequences could have been far worse.
"Just be grateful you didn't take [the drugs] to Bali," Mr Clisdell said, noting that similar offending on the Indonesian island would probably have resulted in a 20-year jail sentence.
The magistrate hoped monetary penalties would teach Williams to think twice before taking part in any more "get-rich-quick" schemes.
"He thought it was a good idea to make some easy money [delivering drugs]," Mr Clisdell said.
"I'm thinking of making it an incentive for him to make some proper money [with which to pay the fines]."
