South West man Christopher Andrew Wintle released from prison, placed on supervision order for drug dealing

A South West man has been given the opportunity to rehabilitate himself from a drug relapse after he was found with 5g of methamphetamine. Christopher Andrew Wintle appeared in the Bunbury District Court on Monday where he was placed on a 12-month intensive supervision order after pleading guilty to possessing methamphetamine with intent to sell or supply to another. The court was told Wintle was sighted by police driving a silver Holden Commodore on Parade Road in Withers during the early hours of January 9 last year. After signalling for Wintle to pull over, police conducted a search of his car where they uncovered a clipseal bag that contained a gram of methamphetamine, a folding knife, several empty clipseal bags, a set of digital scales and $745 cash that was suspected to have been unlawfully obtained. After Wintle was taken to Bunbury Police Station, a strip search uncovered two further clipseal bags on his person, which contained a total of 4.19g of the same illicit drug. In submissions, Wintle’s defence counsel Paul Chapman told the court Wintle had been released from prison in September 2020 after serving time for an unrelated offence and was on the road to getting “back on the straight and narrow” and rekindling his relationship with his father. However, Wintle’s father passed away not long after he reached out, causing Wintle to relapse into methamphetamine use. Mr Chapman also told the court that discussions with his client, who had been held in custody on remand since his arrest, gave insight to his offending and methamphetamine use, telling Mr Chapman that “it’s evil” and “it takes everything away from you”. In sentencing, Judge Michael Gething acknowledged Wintle as a “low-level street dealer” and understood the drug had taken control of Wintle’s life after his father’s passing, along with other traumatic events, after initially making efforts to rehabilitate himself.