A Swan Bay woman who drove while disqualified and under the influence of drugs in the months after being sentenced over a 2018 Christmas Day road crash is being assessed for a home detention order.
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Elizabeth Anne Quill, 37, had a three-month suspended sentence hanging over her head for causing the death of 18-year-old Jayden John Pearce by negligent driving in the crash on Pipers River Road near Lower Turners Marsh.
Mr Pearce was fatally injured when Ms Quill's car crossed onto the incorrect side of the road and collided with the car in which he was a passenger.
She received a 10-week suspended jail sentence and was disqualified from driving until November 2024 for drug driving after the crash.
Quill appeared in the Launceston Magistrates Court on Tuesday for sentence after pleading guilty to driving while disqualified, breaching bail and possessing a smoking pipe on September 17 this year.
She also pleaded guilty to a count of driving with an illicit drug in her blood on the same day at the Woolworths car park in Invermay Road.
In November, Quill pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified in William Street and two counts of possessing a thing for smoking drugs.
She also pleaded guilty to a count of driving with an illicit drug in her oral fluid on August 31.
She had been in custody since September 17.
Police prosecutor Matt Hills told Magistrate Simon Brown that the Department of Community Corrections opposed Quill being sentenced to a home detention order.
Defence counsel Alan Hensley submitted to Mr Brown that it would be unjust to activate both suspended jail sentences.
He noted that the Department had opposed the home detention order because of drug use but said she had not used illicit drugs since being in custody.
Mr Hensley said Quill's drug use had been because of an inability to cope with the tragic consequences of the accident.
"Ms Quill has also suffered an unusually high level of extra-curial punishment," he said.
He said after being sentenced in June she had been abused in person and abused in a manner that was very threatening and very dangerous outside the Magistrates Court.
"That was broadcast in the media and received fairly wide circulation on social media," he said.
He said news reports of new offending were published after she was brought into custody on September 17.
"Within hours her house was completely ransacked with chattels stolen or destroyed," he said.
"The general community enmity caused her to be the target of the attack.
"She lost everything of value to her in regard to chattels.
"She has not seen the house yet but is expecting that the house is probably not habitable as a result."
He said that after the crash sentence she had become withdrawn and socially isolated.
She was travelling to an after-hours medical service when caught on August 31 and there had been nothing aggravating about her manner of driving.
Mr Hensley said Quill had a long history of being an extremely hard worker whose hotel business suffered because of COVID-19.
He sought that the suspended sentences be served concurrently or a further suspended sentence imposed.
Mr Brown sought an assessment for a home detention order and adjourned sentencing until February 2 at 2.15pm.
"Should the home detention order assessment go against Ms Quill I would like to cross-examine that," Mr Hensley said.
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