A HIGH-FLYING Cleveland real estate agent has avoided jail after being given an 18-month suspended sentence on 24 drug counts.
Patrick Ryan McCann, 37, who lives in the exclusive waterfront area of Raby Bay, had pleaded guilty to charges of supplying methamphetamines, also known as ice.
In Brisbane District Court on Friday, Chief Judge Kerry O’Brien said McCann had supplied five people with the drugs over two years.
While Justice O'Brien said the drugs had been supplied in a social context he also described methamphetamine as one of the "greatest evils of all" drugs.
He said McCann, who had already spent six weeks in custody, had made a timely guilty plea after the prosecution had dropped charges of trafficking ice.
Justice O’Brien said McCann had not supplied the drugs for commercial gain.
McCann, whose family is well known in Redlands property market circles, spent six weeks behind bars on remand at Wacol’s Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre after police raided his Raby Bay home in September last year.
It was the second time police had searched his house after an inspection in December 2013, which followed him testing positive to drug-driving.
He was sacked as a salesman by property group LJ Hookers after the September raid which uncovered drugs and drug paraphernalia hidden behind a panel in a cupboard under the oven.
Police also intercepted telephone conversations about drugs during a two-year covert operation, dubbed Kilo Whiskey.
McCann was granted bail in Brisbane's Supreme Court in October last year while awaiting trial and allowed to return to work as a real estate agent.
Bail conditions included living with his parents, a $100,000 surety, undertaking a 21-day rehabilitation program at the Gold Coast’s Currumbin Clinic, reporting to police three times a week and subjecting himself to random drug testing.
While on bail, McCann opened a branch of First National in Cleveland in June, listing himself as principal of the agency. In the first week, he had 13 listings including a $3million Raby Bay mansion.
In December last year, he had his driver's licence suspended for four months when he pleaded guilty to driving with drugs in his system after being pulled over in Doig Street, Cleveland, in August that year.
It was his second offence of driving with ice in his system in as many years.
The State Government froze his assets, including two houses and a BMW 320i, under confiscation laws.
At the time, defence barrister Tony Kimmins said his client had made a mistake but had worked hard to make amends and be drug free.
In his sentencing on Friday, Justice O'Brien said the real estate agent had shown a level of remorse and taken steps to being rehabilitated from his ice addiction.
Outside court defence barrister Bill Potts said McCann had never been a drug trafficker and was trying to pick up the pieces of his life.
He said McCann would have to notify the Real Estate Agents Board of his conviction. It would then be up to the board to determine if he could continue as a real estate agent.
McCann, dressed immaculately in suit and tie, stood silently in the dock while being sentenced. Outside the court he said he was relieved and would continue running his a real estate business.
His visibly emotional father, Patrick McCann, who is also in the property industry, said the sentence boded well for a family Christmas.
