Sheralee Ann Steele: Albany drug syndicate dealer earns prison time for selling to undercover cops

An Albany woman who was arrested in an undercover police operation that cracked a major drug syndicate earlier this year has received jail time for selling methamphetamine to an undercover officer four times. Sheralee Ann Steele, 42, appeared in Albany Magistrates Court on Thursday via videolink from Boronia Pre-Release Centre for Women and pleaded guilty to four charges of selling a prohibited drug, namely methylamphetamine. Police prosecutor Sgt Warrick Walker told the court how on June 21 at 12.10pm Steele sold 0.2g of methamphetamine at her home address in Bayonet Head to an undercover police officer. That same day Steele sold 1.75g of methamphetamine for $900 in the undercover section of Albany Plaza carpark to an undercover police officer. She again sold 1.2g of methamphetamine for $600 on July 18, and 2.2g for $1600 on July 19, to an undercover police officer at her home address. Steele was arrested at her Bayonet Head address on July 21. Steele’s defence lawyer Ben Jackson said the amounts sold were “small amounts” and “on the lower end of of the scale of drug dealing”. Mr Jackson said that despite Steele selling the illicit drug, she was making barely any profit from deals, selling methamphetamine at a similar price to what she had paid her supplier. He went on to say that Steele, a mother of five, had been the victim of significant domestic violence over the years, one incident involving the ramming of her car. Steele developed depression following the death of her brother and subsequently turned to drug use. It is the first time Steele has been incarcerated, spending time in lockdown while she was at Melaleuca Women’s Prison. During her time at Melaleuca, Steele fell from her bed and broke her arm, going untreated for two weeks. Mr Jackson asked the court to consider no cumulative term of imprisonment, but rather a conditional suspended imprisonment order. Police prosecution opposed the consideration, saying the only appropriate sentence was a cumulative immediate term of imprisonment. Sgt Walker cited the harm methamphetamine does to the community, stating Steel sold a total of 4.19g to an undercover police officer. Magistrate Dianne Scaddan said Steele sold “really progressively increasing amounts of methamphetamines”. “It’s unlikely a UCO will come out of nowhere to ask a stranger to buy drugs,” she said. “You were prepared to sell drugs and in increasing amounts.” Despite the low-profit margin of the drug dealing, Ms Scaddan said there was still an “element of commerciality about it” and it formed part of a “distribution chain”. “You were prepared to put drugs into the community, and benefit from it,” she said. “It’s not just about you, but about the detrimental effect methamphetamine has when it’s in the community. “You were prepared to profit to some degree.” Ms Scaddan described Steele as a person who has a long-standing history of drug misuse and involvement in the drug culture, but was not the “mastermind behind all of this”. Steele was sentenced to two months imprisonment for selling 2.2g of methamphetamine at her home address, and three months for her other drug charges to be served concurrently. Steele was made eligible for parole.