A JUDGE is yet to rule whether a Tamworth man caught up in a high-profile drug dealing sting should return to court to face sentencing because he would need to self-isolate if he's not sent to jail.
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Dylan Rutter is living in South East Queensland but is yet to cross the border, and didn't front Tamworth District Court this week.
His barrister Ben Cochrane appeared via video link in court to fix a sentencing date, but said his client "has the difficulty" of the Queensland border being closed.
He asked if Rutter can appear via video link to be sentenced, but the court heard such a request would only work if he wasn't jailed for supplying 150 MDMA, or ecstasy, tablets.
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"He'll have to go back to Queensland and self isolate [for 14 days]," Mr Cochrane told the court.
DPP solicitor Max Dickson said he was looking at the case closely with submissions still to be drafted but he said "the offender spent a short period, some three odd months" in custody already.
"It's likely I will be submitting the Section 5 threshold has been crossed," he said, also pointing to a intensive corrections order (ICO).
But Acting Judge Jonathan Williams said that created difficulties because offenders can't be supervised by parole authorities in another state.
Mr Cochrane said "the offender has been on bail now for a long time".
"He works in civil construction," he told the court, adding his client is routinely tested for alcohol and drugs.
"He's been clean and working since then."
Acting Judge Williams has adjourned the case to later this month to decide whether Rutter will have to cross the border.
"Bail is to continue," he said.
Dylan Rutter was caught up in an undercover police sting by Oxley detectives in late-2017 in Calala, before he was arrested two months later.
Rutter has admitted to the supply of 150 MDMA pills, or ecstasy, and obtained the drugs from Tamworth personal trainer Mark McDonald who was jailed for four years for drug dealing.
Rutter was initially ordered to stand trial for drug supply after denying the allegations against him. Just weeks out from his trial date, he pleaded guilty in October 2019.
But in an unusual court backflip he was again ordered to stand trial when a judge rejected his plea when his defence took issue with "uncharged acts" raised by the Crown. At the time, it emerged the Crown prosecutor planned to enter covert phone recordings from co-accused McDonald's house into evidence.
After more negotiations, Rutter pleaded guilty earlier this year, and in June the "uncharged acts" were struck out of evidence by a judge in Tamworth court.
He is is the last of the dealers in the drug ring exposed by the Strike Force Kotzur investigation.
Breanna Chillingworth
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
