A disability support pensioner tried to boost his "measly" income by supplying cannabis, kilograms of which he kept in a freezer at the Canberra home he shares with his mother.
The ACT Magistrates Court heard on Tuesday that Nathan Keith Knight, 41, had hoped to earn some cash that might help him bring his wife, whom he had met online, to Australia.
Knight made a business out of drug trafficking for about 18 months before the plan backfired on him in July 2019, when police raided his Rivett home while he was overseas.
Court documents show officers found about 3.5kg of cannabis throughout the property, discovering the bulk of it in a freezer that was inside a shed.
Drug paraphernalia and some "mouldy" marijuana was also found in Knight's car, while officers located nearly $12,000 in cash inside a bedroom safe.
Police seized the drugs and electronic devices that belonged to Knight, later finding messages on his phone that were consistent with the sale and supply of cannabis.
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Knight, who declined a police interview upon his return to Australia, initially pleaded not guilty to a drug trafficking charge.
He switched his plea, however, on the day a contested hearing was due to begin.
Knight's lawyer, James Maher, told a sentence hearing on Tuesday that the 41-year-old had been receiving "fairly measly" pension payments since 2006.
Living in a bedroom at his mother's house and barely able to support himself, Knight foolishly turned to drug trafficking to help pay for his new wife's relocation to Australia.
Mr Maher described Knight's enterprise as unsophisticated and "haphazard", saying police had found cannabis "strewn all over the place" during the July 2019 raid.
He also noted the unusual and "very pleasant" tone of Knight's text messages to customers, with whom the 41-year-old had tried to arrange coffee catch-ups.
"This isn't a typical gangster," Mr Maher told the court, adding that his client had clearly not been "living it up" in a bedroom at his mother's home.
Mr Maher ultimately pushed for a suspended jail sentence, telling magistrate Louise Taylor she could be confident Knight had "turned the corner" since his offending.
Prosecutor Erin Priestly did not argue against this outcome, though she noted Knight had admitted that he had been supplying drugs for some 18 months prior to being busted.
While Ms Taylor found Knight was "more than a simple dealer", having bought large amounts of cannabis with the intention of selling it on, she agreed a suspended jail sentence was appropriate.
She said the best way to protect the community was to promote the rehabilitation of criminals, and Knight was a remorseful person who posed a low risk of reoffending.
Ms Taylor accordingly imposed a 10-month suspended jail sentence, with an 18-month good behaviour order.
She urged Knight to "put a line under this and move on with [his] life" by complying with the order, describing his drug trafficking as "a very poor choice".
