Bunbury woman Rosa Valois deemed a ‘good person’ who did some bad things in sentencing over drug offences

A 25-year-old Bunbury mother has been spared jail after a South West magistrate found she was “a good person who had resorted to bad things” to help herself get back on her feet. Rosa Ann Valois was handed an eight-month prison term that was suspended for 18 months after appearing in Bunbury Magistrate’s Court via videolink from Melaleuca Women’s Prison on Friday in relation to a number of drug-related offences, including possessing methamphetamine with intent to sell or supply. The court was told Valois had first been stopped by police while driving in the Carey Park area on March 11 after it was found she had false plates affixed to her car. After declaring police would find a smoking pipe within the car, police uncovered it during a search as well as 0.2g of methamphetamine in a clip-seal bag, scales and $1240 cash that was suspected to have been the profit of drug deals Valois has made. Six days later, Valois was sighted by police driving on Wittenoom Street when they stopped her and conducted another search of her car. The search uncovered a black lock-box which contained five cannabis seeds and varying quantities of various drugs including morphine, diazepam and other prescription and controlled drugs. A month later, Valois was sighted and stopped by police during a traffic stop where she once again declared there were drugs in her car. Police uncovered 1g of cannabis, 0.5g of DNT, two smoking pipes, 0.5g of methamphetamine and $1525 cash that was suspected to have been profits from drug deals. Despite being given a caution, Valois admitted to police that she would sell meth from time to time, resulting in her mobile phone being seized which uncovered messages alluding to drug dealing. Valois also tested positive to methamphetamine use in oral fluid drug tests conducted during each of the traffic stops. In submissions, Valois’s lawyer Jodette Reynolds told the court Valois had found herself in the volatile world of drug dealing after resorting to that as a way to get herself back on her feet financially after being the victim of an “extremely toxic” relationship and had resorted to using drugs herself to cope. She said Valois’ arrest and remand into custody in May gave her “the wake-up call she needed” and she was determined to sort her issues out and make an effort to get her young children back into her care. It was during that appearance that a bail application was made but ultimately refused, prompting her to break down in tears as she was led out of the courtroom. It was also submitted Valois had come into the possession of various painkillers, anti-depressants and muscle relaxants from a friend as she was suffering from chronic headaches. Ms Reynolds also told the court that while Valois initially claimed the seized cash was her Centrelink payments, she accepted the cash she withdrew might have been “tainted” by the profits of drug deals. Despite acknowledging that Valois’ circumstances were “very sad”, police prosecutor Senior Constable Karl Rep submitted dealing in methamphetamine “decimates society” and Valois should be given a punishment to reflect that. In her sentencing remarks, Magistrate Linda Keane said it was “terribly sad” to hear what had happened to Valois prior to her offending but it did not excuse her resorting to “distributing awful drugs into the community”. “Drug dealing was certainly the last thing you should have been doing,” she said. “Everything about this is an awful shame and you strike me as a good person who’s done some bad things.” Along with the suspended prison term that included a program and supervision requirement, Valois was fined a total of $3700 plus costs and had her licence disqualified for six months on each driving with an illicit drug in oral fluid charge. A further charge of having ready access to a machete and methamphetamine was adjour-ned to July 12.