By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A CRANBOURNE tattooist whose home bungalow contained drugs, two sawn-off long-arms, several machetes and a dagger has been put on a two-year community corrections order.
Shane Hart, 24, was charged with trafficking after police seized 36.49 grams of ice as well as cannabis and 3.6 grams of amphetamines during the backyard bungalow raid on 2 October, a court heard.
Also seized were a sawn-off Winchester rifle, a sawn-off 12-gauge shotgun, cash and drug paraphernalia, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told on 4 July.
Hart, who pleaded guilty to all charges, told police at the time the drugs were for personal use and that he collected knives.
Defence lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson told the court Hart had been originally referred to the Dandenong Drug Court over the offences.
That course of action was aborted due to Hart attempting suicide with a gun in February.
“He heard voices to shoot himself,” Ms Garde-Wilson said.
As a result, Hart was hospitalised for a month and had recently been discharged from rehabilitation, Ms Garde-Wilson said.
Hart, who had a “long-standing” schizoid disorder, was exposed to drugs and “extremely bad peer influences” at a tattoo parlour workplace.
He later worked as a fully-qualified tattooist at home, where the police raids took place, his lawyer said.
The court was told Hart was receiving drug and mental-health treatment, had moved in with family and started part-time work.
He had been drug-free since February, disposed of his phone and closed his Facebook account, the court was told.
“All of the people who knew him think he’s dead,” Ms Garde-Wilson said.
Magistrate Pauline Spencer said the combination of a “significant” quantity of drugs and weapons were of “great concern”.
Ms Spencer said she would normally order a “lengthy term of imprisonment” but for Hart’s young age, and lack of relevant priors.
“You’ve never been in trouble with this sort of thing before. You got in trouble quickly and deeply.”
She said Hart may have been suffering an untreated mental illness at the time of the incident.
The suicide attempt may have been a “circuit breaker” for Hart, who showed “strong indicators of a positive rehabilitation”.
Ms Spencer said the community corrections order would include treatment and judicial monitoring.
She agreed with Ms Garde-Wilson’s submission not to include a work component, given it would bring him into contact with criminals he was trying to dissociate from.
Ms Spencer ordered the cash to be forfeited to the State, and the drugs and weapons destroyed.
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