Binningup man Jaymon Dawson jailed and declared drug trafficker for growing more than 30 cannabis plants

A District Court judge has told a 25-year-old Binningup man he has made “a spectacular debut” before the courts after jailing him for 20 months for growing several crops of cannabis plants and selling the drug to support his young family. Jaymon Malcolm Dawson was sentenced and declared a drug trafficker by the Bunbury District Court on Monday after pleading guilty to charges of cultivating cannabis with intent to sell or supply, possessing the same drug with intent to sell or supply, and unlawfully possessing almost $15,000 in cash. The court was told police conducted a search of Dawson’s Binningup home on March 14, where they located and seized nine juvenile cannabis plants growing in pots in the backyard of the property, 2.5kg of trimmed cannabis buds growing on a multi-shelf rack in the bathroom and two shopping bags containing 374g of cannabis in the laundry, and a shoebox that contained $14,945 in cash. Police also found photos of further cannabis plants on Dawson’s mobile phone, as well as messages indicating the sale of the drug. A total of 31 cannabis plants were seized, along with almost three kilograms worth of cannabis material. During the search, Dawson admitted he had been involved in the sale of cannabis since the end of 2021 and had been making average sales of about $600 a week. In submissions, Dawson’s defence counsel Fiona Walsh said her client was not involved in smoking cannabis himself and selling the drug was “driven by financial need” to support his family due to being unemployed for several years at the time. Ms Walsh said that “ironically” not long after the charges were laid, Dawson finally managed to gain lawful employment, which he had maintained since. It was also submitted that Dawson, who had never been before the courts, had since made actions to separate himself from his “drug associates” by cancelling his social media account and leaving the messenger group. A pre-sentence report that was submitted to the court also provided comment from Dawson about him being “glad he got caught”. Ms Walsh also told the court her client had actually wanted to plead guilty to the charges in his very first appearance in magistrates court. “I actually had to hold him back from pleading guilty at the very first occasion,” she said. “But the stress of his illegal life is weighing on him, which goes to his proper values and his desire to have a law-abiding life.” In sentencing, District Court Judge Martin Flynn told Dawson his case was “a little bit unusual” compared with other cases because Dawson was not a drug user himself. “You are literally a drug dealer. You earn your living by selling drugs,” he said. “This is the first time you have been before a court or any court, so it has to be said it’s a spectacular debut in that this is serious offending to come before the court.” Dawson will be made eligible for parole in July next year.