Aussie jailed for importing drugs from M’sia

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MELBOURNE: For Australian teacher Karen Beresford who became a ‘mature-age’ escort provider in Malaysia, the party was over when the 61-year-old was nabbed by the Aussie authorities for importing the party drug, ‘ice’.

She was stopped at the Melbourne Airport in November 2007, upon arrival from Malaysia with 186.6 grammes of pure methamphetamine in two containers of hair product.

The drug had an estimated street value of between A$52,800 and A$93,300.

For importation of the drug, Beresford was yesterday jailed a maximum of two years and nine months and ordered to be released after serving 14 months, when she will have to be of good behaviour for a further 33 months.

The Age Online reports that the County Court here was told that she had earned an international reputation while as a teacher at a college in South Australia.

Chief Judge Michael Rozenes heard that her dismissal from the college in 2000, later led to her working as an escort in Kuala Lumpur where she began using ‘ice’ and became psychologically addicted to the drug.

Rozenes said a psychologist’s report on Beresford detailed the ‘traumatic setbacks’ in her business and professional life after her dismissal from college.

Following her detention at the Melbourne Airport in 2007, a warrant for her arrest was issued on February 8, 2010, when she failed to appear in court to answer charges.

She was taken into custody last October when stopped while trying to leave Australia for Kuala Lumpur with a passport in her maiden name.

In his sentencing remarks, Rozenes said Beresford had no previous convictions and had made a “worthwhile contribution to the community through hard work and endeavour”.

The former teacher pleaded guilty to a charge of importing a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug. — Bernama