Ronald Kenneth Ramsay detailed his side of the story in Tamworth District Court following a police raid on a Bithramere property in September, 2015.

The court heard there were 630.5g of methylamphetamine or ice found on the property, including 96g that had been found in a frypan in a shed.

Mr Ramsay “accepted that it was found” at the property, but “there is evidence in the Crown brief that he has always denied this frypan”, public defender Stuart Bouveng said.

“He made admissions when the police were there as to 534g of the drug,” he said.

“The drug in the fry pan, he hadn’t seen it, he didn’t know what it was.”

DPP solicitor Mark Ferguson said video recording of the search warrant shows “precisely” where the ice in question was found.

“The Crown case is that the drugs found in the frypan and the bar area were his,” he said.

“It was found on the ground immediately behind [the bar].”

Judge Deborah Payne said she wanted to see photos of the search because “it might go to the fact that how could you miss it if you’re going to fall over it”.

Ramsay, a horse broker, told the court he went to Queensland to pick up a horse float trailer with furniture for a friend who had been “locked up” by police.

He said he bought the trailer back to the Bithramere property where it remains still, and only discovered the drugs six months “before I got caught”.

​"I went to go pull the hot water system out of it and I found it behind the hot water system,” he said. 

“It was up behind the hot water system and I pulled it out.”

He said he told police during the raid that he removed the drugs that were in various packets and put them in the house.

The court heard police found ice in the gun safe, the spare room and in the bar area of a shed.

"I locked them in the gun safe,” he said, adding he found a semi-automatic pistol in the trailer as well.

“I dunno, I just put them in there ... lock it... keep it safe.”

He admitted to putting the methylamphetamine in a saucepan because it was “in an broken container”.

Ramsay, who was supported by his wife and family in court, admitted to supply more than 500g of methylamphetamine which is not less than a large commercial quantity – a charge the government upped the maximum penalty to life imprisonment just eight days before his arrest.

Mr Bouveng said there would be no specific numbers on how much Ramsay would supply to friends and family, because “there was no specific plan”.

Ramsay said he started using drugs at 25 and the habit continued in his occupation as a truck driver “to keep awake”.

“It was about 2g a day,” he told the court, adding he would “smoke it”.

Mr Bouveng said a specialist report showed Ramsay had “expressed considerable regret”.

He’s also admitted to possessing a semi-automatic pistol and an unregistered Winchester rifle and silencers.

Six other offences including not keeping the firearms safely, acquiring the pistol and dealing with property suspected to be the proceeds of crime will be taken into account in sentencing.

The sentencing hearing will continue in June.

Oxley police including the Tamworth Target Action Group (TAG), Oxley detectives, rural crime investigators and uniformed officers, raided the Glenara Ln property at Bithramere on September 8, 2015.

Ramsay said there had been two men living at the property on and off for 14 months but left a month before the raid.

He said he was away the weekend before the police raid and didn’t see the frypan with the ice there in the shed the weekend before the raid – and the shed was not lockable.

A previous judge said Ramsay was entitled to a 25 per cent discount because he had been “languishing” in a prison cell for 18 months.

Ramsay told the court he saw his former barrister twice in the 18 months he spent in custody, and never saw his solicitor or the brief of evidence or had anyone prepare him for his trial.

The court heard Ramsay had difficulty reading and writing and had not seen the evidence against him until only recently when he was given new legal representation.