Mark Lee Wortley was handed a four year sentence for his role as the upper level supplier in the Gunnedah drug ring which was smashed by Strike Force Codes – an undercover police operation set up by Oxley detectives in 2014.

Wortley, who has been behind bars since his arrest in raids in February, last year, was serving out another prison term for drug dealing, while awaiting sentencing.

Acting Judge Colin O’Connor imposed a minimum non-parole period of two years to start in 2017 meaning Wortley won’t be eligible for release until April, 2019.

Acting Judge O’Connor also sentenced Wortley’s partner Helen Eason to a two-year term in prison with a non-parole period of five months and five days – but she’s now on parole after time served.

Between October and November, 2014, Eason and Wortley made $40,000 from the sale of methylamphetamine, which they were later heard on telephone intercepts discussing who stole the money that was hidden in a Gunnedah house.

In sentencing in Tamworth District Court, Acting Judge O’Connor also ordered that a Nissan Navara, Mini Cooper, Toyota Hilux and a jet boat – the proceeds of their offending – be forfeited to the crown.

Eason, 41, supplied 1.95g of methylamphetamine or ice in 10 separate deals while Wortley dealt 56g of the drug in 43 deals.

Wortley also recruited a 15-year-old boy to supply 4.3g of ice for him.

“Mr Wortley was clearly a street level dealer, operating an unsophisticated operation,” Wortley’s barrister Paul Coady said in written submissions, tendered to the court.

“All of the supply offences were aggravated ... being that the offences had a degree of planning and ... that the offences were committed for financial gain.”

He said Wortley operated a “low level drug supply operation, organised at a basic level”. 

The court heard Eason’s offending was aggravated because of previous convictions and because the drug dealing was carried while she was on two good behaviour bonds, and because the offences were committed for financial gain, namely dealing with the proceeds of crime involved $40,000 in cash.