GETTING caught with 1 kilogram of cocaine, and $237,000 in bundles of cash, has put Drew Paterson of Heatherbrae behind bars for five years.
Paterson, 30, was sentenced in Newcastle District court on Wednesday, a year and half after he was arrested at a Bungalow he was renting at Heatherbrae.
He had pleaded guilty to two charges, supply commercial quantity and dealing with proceeds of crime, which afforded him a discount on sentence of 25 per cent.
Police had phone intercepts recording Paterson's conversations with his then partner during which he talked about "getting legitimate money coming in", and the need to "find a way to f---ing legitimise the sh-t if you know what I mean".
Police searched his bungalow at Pacific Gardens Village when he arrived home from a flight to Newcastle from Brisbane on January 4, 2021. He was carrying a white Woolworths shopping bag with him, but the drugs were found in a vacuum sealed bag, or brick, inside another bag on the kitchen bench.
Judge Peter McGrath SC said there was no evidence that Paterson brought the brick of cocaine into the bungalow.
"That is not necessarily the only inference available, that he brought it to the bungalow - it might already have been there," Justice McGrath said.
The following day, Paterson's mother searched her Raymond Terrace home where Paterson had regularly stayed and found an old rusty fire drum with a tarpaulin covering.
It contained 49 separate bundles of cash to the tune of $237,450, which she handed in to police.
Justice McGrath said Paterson was clearly motivated by money, as well as the need to feed his own drug habit.
Paterson lived with severe ADHD, as well as generalised anxiety, and grew up with a violent, alcoholic father, the court heard.
He lost two close friends to violent deaths at a young age, one to a king hit and another who died after being shot in the chest, and he turned to drug use to deal with that, Justice McGrath said.
He was sentenced to five years, with a non-parole period of three years, and will be eligible for release on parole on February 4, 2024.
