A DRUG dealer has been given a chance to avoid jail by seeking help for her ice addiction after police found a gun and ammunition in her bedroom while she was in rehabilitation.
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Simone Proctor, 37, of Menzies Street, Warrnambool, pleaded guilty in the Koori division of the Warrnambool Magistrates Court to being a prohibited person possessing a firearm and ammunition, possessing cannabis and a weapon (pocket knife) and breaching a community corrections order previously imposed for trafficking drugs.
Magistrate Cynthia Toose said that Proctor had a long standing drug problem but she wanted to know what Proctor was doing to help herself.
The magistrate extended Proctor's bail until the next sitting of the Koori court on November 17 to give her a chance to organise a place in the two-week detoxification program at the Warrnambool Base Hospital.
"It's up to you. If you come back on that day and have not done nothing then the sentencing options are pretty slim," Ms Toose told Proctor, adding that she required evidence of self-help.
Ms Toose said Proctor had been imprisoned previously, corrections orders had been imposed, but nothing had worked and change had to come from within the defendant.
"You need to do something to help yourself, so that you are in a position to go on a community corrections order as you have to be resentenced for the breach of CCO imposed for trafficking," she said.
Proctor said she had previously contacted the hospital to get into detox.
"It hasn't been easy lately. Anything and everything has happened to me," she said.
Defence counsel Xavier Farrelly said a past incident involving her son had caused enormous difficulties for Proctor and she sometimes turned to substance abuse to deal with her issues.
Police raided Proctor's home late last year and found a .22 calibre rifle wrapped in a sheet under a couch cushion.
There were also two rounds of .22 ammunition.
The rifle was stolen in the Stawell district in July last year.
On June 25 this year Proctor was intercepted driving a silver Holden Commodore in Crawley Street, Warrnambool.
She had 5.2 grams of cannabis in the car door and a pocket knife.
She said the cannabis belonged to her brother and she was taking it to his home.
On July 24 she was pulled over again in Crawley Street and drug tested positive to cannabis and ice.
