Balgownie man found with ecstasy pills faces jail term

By Courtney Trenwith
Updated November 5 2012 - 7:38pm, first published April 15 2009 - 11:15am

A Balgownie man who bought more than 150 ecstasy tablets for friends attending a party is facing a jail term after pleading guilty in Wollongong Local Court yesterday to supplying drugs. Timothy Frank Zerner, 23, never made it to the party last October. Instead he spent the night in a cell after police found scores of ecstasy tablets in his jeans pocket, car and bedroom.Zerner came to the attention of police on October 11, when the party took place, when he was found inside a vehicle they believed contained a weapon used in a fight outside Collegians Club in Wollongong. Police noticed Zerner was acting nervously and decided to search him, according to police facts tendered to the court.They found four small, resealable plastic bags, each with 10 pink and brown tablets inside his jeans pockets and another 33 tablets inside the car.Zerner immediately admitted to police that the tablets were ecstasy and that they were his, the police facts said.Police also found two blue anabolic steroids, which Zerner told them he had bought from a male at a Wollongong gym. He said he had taken 100 steroids during the previous four weeks to "get bigger muscles".Police also found an extendable baton, about 60cm long, hidden under a mat on the front passenger floor of the vehicle. Zerner pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited weapon, despite telling police he did not know the man who had passed the baton to him through the car window and said "take this" when he and a friend drove past the fight.During a search of Zerner's house, police found a further 79 ecstasy tablets as well as purity-testing equipment.Zerner told police he had bought the drugs the night before for $18 each and planned to sell them to friends attending his farewell party."I was having a farewell party and we were just going to have a big night," he said during a recorded interview. He admitted supplying friends on previous occasions to help support his own habit."I normally fork out and buy it for, like, the weekend for all the boys and all that and then they would give me the money for it," he said during the interview.He denied making a profit."At the end of the day, no, I really don't because it goes back into what I (use)."Zerner is scheduled to be sentenced in Wollongong District Court on May 15.

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