Cross-code football star Karmichael Hunt has been fined $2,500 but had no conviction recorded after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine.
The magistrate, Catherine Pirie, said she had taken into account Hunt’s remorse, his early plea and character references, including one from his former coach Wayne Bennett.
Hunt’s lawyer said he had suffered “enormous economic loss” in the wake of his arrest on drug charges after being caught in phone taps as part of a Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) investigation.
Hunt, 28, was originally charged with four counts of supplying the drug by the CCC but his lawyers negotiated to have those downgraded to possession as part of a plea on his first appearance on the matter in the Southport magistrates court on Thursday.
Barrister Alastair McDougall told the court that Hunt had arranged to buy cocaine in a “misguided post-season celebration which went on for approximately a month”.
Hunt was caught last September and October in phone texts and calls organising to buy a total of 12.5g of cocaine from former rugby league player John Touma, the alleged key player in a cocaine supply ring targeted by the CCC, the court heard.
This was after the end of Hunt’s final season with AFL side the Gold Coast Suns, and months before he was recruited to play rugby union with the Queensland Reds.
Police prosecutor Kristy Johnson said Hunt travelled to the Gold Coast four times to buy the cocaine from Touma – including once at a Domino’s pizza restaurant at Mermaid Waters just after 7.30 on the morning of 8 September.
In a later deal, Hunt told Touma he was “on the coast with a few boys and they are pretty keen”, Johnson said.
Touma then directed Hunt to a bar and said he would “send one of his boys to meet him” before asking “what he needed”.
“The defendant responded ‘a big one’,” Johnson said, adding this was believed to be a reference to an “eight ball”.
Touma twice used another former rugby league player, Matt Seers, as a go-between to deliver the drugs, she said.
The court heard that Hunt, in the first exchange, texted Touma to say he wanted “the full 8 – $1100”, a reference to an “eight ball” or 3.5g of cocaine, which Johnson said was “not a pure weight”.
Hunt bought two more “eight balls”, on one occasion asking for the drug to be split to “singles”, or individual bags of 1g each, the court heard.
McDougall said his client would be “paying for his very poor choices for the rest of his life” and called for a fine as the most appropriate form of punishment for a remorseful first-time offender with “excellent prospects” of rehabilitation.
“He deeply regrets the position he’s put himself and his family in [through] his offending,” he said.
“He’s suffered … enormous economic loss as a result of his actions. But more importably he now has to deal with the fact that his two young daughters and soon to be third young daughter are going to grow up with the knowledge that their father has broken the law.
“No doubt there’ll be ramifications for them as they go through their school life.
“That is the most important thing at the forefront of his mind.”
Hunt told reporters outside court it had been “a difficult couple of weeks for myself and my family” and that they were looking forward to “putting the process behind us and moving on”.
The fine Hunt received in court was dwarfed by the $30,000 penalty the Australian and Queensland rugby unions gave him.
But a six-week suspension by the sporting bodies after his court appearance indicates his playing future remains largely intact.
A supply conviction for Hunt could have resulted in a four-year international playing ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Hunt’s agent David Riolo told the court in a written submission that a recorded conviction could have had “enormous implications” for his career, raising the prospect of restrictions on international travel.