Drug addicted mother-of-five who used Facebook Messenger to sell methamphetamine after the collapse of her marriage avoids jail
- Claire Kathleen Marinovich, 39, offered to sell meth on Facebook messenger
- The mother-of-five from Perth was given 18-month suspended prison sentence
- She was warned that she would ‘spend a long time in jail’ if she doesn’t change
A drug-addicted mother who was caught trying to sell meth over Facebook messenger has narrowly avoided jail.
Claire Kathleen Marinovich, from Perth, was struggling to cope with the breakdown of her marriage when she was caught selling the drugs, Rockingham Magistrate’s Court heard.
The 30-year-old was given a 18-month suspended prison sentence for offering to sell between 0.05g and 3.5g of methamphetamine to a man between February 12 and March 10, 2018 on 10 separate occasions.
Magistrate Leanne Atkins warned the mother-of-five that she would ‘spend a long time in jail’ if she doesn’t change.
A drug-addicted mother who was caught trying to sell meth over Facebook messenger has narrowly avoided jail (stock)
‘Meth is a scourge to society and people like you make the situation for others in the community worse,’ Ms Atkins told Marinovich, The West reported.
‘At the age of 39 you should have learned but you haven’t, you haven’t taken addiction by the horns and cleaned your act up.’
A raid on the mother-of-five’s home on unrelated matters saw police seize her mobile phone.
Officers found messages in which Marinovich was attempting to sell drugs to a man.
Her defence lawyer Malcolm Ayoub, told the court that his client was struggling to cope following the breakdown of her marriage in 2014.
He stated that the community and her family would ‘suffer’ if she were to be locked up, despite attempting to clean up her life.
Ms Atkins said there is ‘great cause for concern’ that Marinovich would reoffend and that she needed to prove that she was willing to change her life around.
‘If you don’t take this final opportunity, and you see me sitting here again, the love and care of your mother won’t save you from jail again,’ Ms Atkins said.
One of Marinovich’s children and her own mother watched the proceedings from the public gallery.
Claire Kathleen Marinovich was given a 18-month prison sentence for offering to sell between 0.05g and 3.5g of methamphetamine (stock)