A Launceston woman whose car was intercepted as she drove off the Spirit of Tasmania had $45,000 worth of the drug ice in a backpack, the Supreme Court in Launceston heard.
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Katarzyna Wanda Stadnicka, 32, of Kings Meadows, pleaded guilty to trafficking in August 2017.
The court heard that she had 45 grams of crystal methylamphetamine (ice) and pseudoephedrine in a backpack hidden in her red Hyundai.
There was also $800 cash, four mobile phones, an ice pipe and notebooks recording client's names seized when a search warrant was executed.
A subsequent search of her Kings Meadows home found more drugs and resulted in the arrest of a housemate.
Crown prosecutor Peter Sherriff requested the activation of an eight month wholly-suspended sentence handed down in 2016 for a significant burglary in 2014.
However, Justice Robert Pearce, who sentenced at that time, said it would be unjust to activate the sentence.
Justice Pearce said Stadnicka had not offended since 2017 and was the mother of a six-month-old child.
"I consider separation from your youngest child if I were to send you to prison would risk deleterious effects on the psychological makeup of the child," Justice Pearce said.
"Those effects justify leniency."
Justice Pearce ordered that Stadnicka serve a 15-month home detention order at her new home in Longford.
He rejected an application for a drug treatment order sought by defence counsel Katarina Gauden because Stadnicka had ceased using drugs.
Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
