Inside the lives of Aussie crime couples

These are the bizarre, brazen and terrifying cases of couples who fronted court across the nation so far in 2023.

‘DO YOU WANT TO DIE … I WILL KILL YOU’

A couple’s ice-fuelled crime spree across northern NSW and Queensland came to a terrifying end as police swarmed over a carjacked vehicle which brought devastating consequences for the victim.

Georgia Eve Masterson, 22, of Illinbah, and Jonathan Michael Egan, 25, of Greenbank were sentenced at Lismore District Court in May.

The Queensland pair watched on with deadpan expressions in their prison greens as police helicopter footage of their armed carjacking was played in court.

Egan and Masterson were being trailed by a police chopper after a series of armed robberies in Queensland and NSW on February 18, 2022.

Footage showed the couple in a stolen Porsche pull into a Caltex at Banora Point on Leisure Drive, where Egan attempted to carjack a woman at gunpoint.

The victim froze but didn’t hand over the keys. The pair got back into the Porsche and drove to Tweed City shopping centre.

Egan pulled a knife on Hugh Garnar, saying: “Do you want to die … I will kill you”, while Masterson brandished a gun.

The couple jumped into Mr Garnar’s Hyundai Tucson as police converged. Officers attempted to block their escape as Egan “used the Hyundai as an offensive weapon”, ramming into two police cars. The Garnars’ family car was destroyed in the crash, and they were still without a vehicle 15 months on.

The court heard Egan had been on ice during the crime spree, and had spent most of his 20s in and out of prison for drug related offending.

Egan was jailed for seven years with a non-parole period of four years. He will be eligible for release on August 18, 2026.

Masterson was jailed for six years with three years non-parole and will be eligible for release on August 18, 2026. They pleaded guilty on October 14, 2022 to all charges.

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GRANDPARENTS BUSTED OVER DRUG STASH

A couple from a tiny Upper North community near Adelaide busted with a stash of cannabis and cash in their car at Ottoway were jailed in May.

Yatina grandparents Rachel Louise Bass, 54, and Shane Richards, 58, were trafficking cannabis to fund their personal use and to alleviate financial pressures, the court was told.

During sentencing, the District Court was told police stopped a car at Ottoway on May 4, 2021, in which Bass was the driver and Richards was the passenger.

The car was searched after police detected a strong smell of cannabis. They found 416g of cannabis material in a duffel bag in the front passenger footwell, which Richards pleaded guilty to. The court was told the cannabis was valued between $2000 and $3000, but worth much more if sold in smaller amounts.

Police also found more than 1.2kg of cannabis in a duffel bag in the back seat of the car, which Bass pleaded guilty to.

The court was told the cannabis was valued between $6000 and $12,000 if sold by the pound. Bass’s handbag contained just over $4900.

Police then searched the 28ha property where the couple lived and found a shed that appeared to be a cannabis grow room, containing 20 pots, irrigation and a set up for lighting. They also found $7480 in cash and five cannabis cuttings.

Bass pleaded guilty to commercial drug trafficking, while Richards pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.

The court was told Richards was sentenced in 2021 to 21 years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 16 years, for child-sex offences.

Richards was sentenced to two years and nine months’ jail, with his non-parole period from the child-sex offending being extended to 17 years.

Bass was sentenced to two years and three months’ jail, with a non-parole period of 10 months.

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$350K IN PROFITS WHILE ON BENEFITS

A couple who amassed more than $350,000 by trafficking drugs through Queensland’s Western Downs towns over 16 months were both been handed jail terms in May.

Richard Stanley Ryan, 34, and Jade Michelle-Leigh Pervis, 25, made separate appearances before the Toowoomba Supreme Court to plead guilty to trafficking cannabis and meth and associated charges.

Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie told the court the pair had trafficked the drugs over a 16-month period from May 2020.

Ms Petrie said Ryan received “the lion’s share” of profits from the business, which at times showed they had amassed $350,000 cash in bank accounts while on Centrelink benefits.

The Crown case was that the couple had a customer base of about 65 people and though the dealings were mainly at “street level”, at least one customer was prepared to obtain meth of up to 28g, she said.

It was accepted that both were also drug users, Ms Petrie said.

Pervis’s barrister Jessica Goldie told the court her client had spent 433 days in pre-sentence custody during which time she had engaged with prison mental health services.

Barrister Scott Lynch, for Ryan, said his client had spent 502 days in pre-sentence custody and that he instructed that he was “officially done” with meth.

Justice Callaghan sentenced Ryan to seven-and-a-half years in jail but, declaring 502 days as time served under the sentence, ordered he be eligible to apply for release on parole as of December 15, 2023.

Pervis was sentenced to five years’ jail, suspended for time already spent in custody, to be released on three years probation.

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PAIR SOLD DRUGS AS COVID HIT BUSINESS

A Buderim couple, raising two young children, trafficked drugs from their unit after their jobs were affected by the pandemic, a court was told in May.

Brooke Ashley Miller, 29, and Allister Charles Whatnall, 36, were surrounded by supporters in the Maroochydore District Court on May 4 as details of their 14-month drug trafficking business were shared.

Crown prosecutor Rebecca Marks said the couple trafficked cannabis at street level out of their family home from August 2020 until they were undone in November 2021.

They referred to their illegal business as a “shop” and had up to 70 customers, Ms Marks said.

They would communicate with customers using coded, but unsophisticated, terms, on Facebook Messenger, Ms Marks said. The drugs were collected from their unit, where Miller’s two young children were also living.

But their operation was brought undone after a police search of their unit on November 4, 2021.

Whatnall’s defence barrister Kevin Kelso said it was his client’s idea to start trafficking after his work as a plasterer was affected by the pandemic.

The trafficking profits paid for the children’s expenses and to keep a roof over the family’s heads.

Miller’s defence barrister Matthew Hynes said his client went into rehabilitation after she was arrested.

They pleaded guilty to a number of charges including trafficking dangerous drugs.

Whatnall was sentenced to three years with a parole release date of February 4, 2024. Miller was sentenced to three years with immediate parole.

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‘SLAVE’ COUPLE FAIL TO OVERTURN CONVICTION

A Melbourne couple who were found guilty of possessing an elderly slave in their suburban home in February failed in a bid to overturn their conviction despite a court finding the victim had “lied” in their evidence.

Kumuthini and Kandasamy Kannan were both found guilty by a Supreme Court jury in 2021 for possessing a slave and exercising power over a slave and were sentenced to eight and six years’ prison respectively.

The conviction centred on an elderly Tamil woman, who lived at the Kannans’ Glen Waverley home in Melbourne between 2007 and 2015.

But in a fresh attempt heard in the Victorian Court of Appeal in February, the Kannans, who are husband and wife, argued in separate bids that the victim’s testimony was “so lacking in credibility” that the jury should have had reasonable doubt over their guilt.

In their judgment, judges Phillip Priest, Richard Niall and Cameron Macaulay said that although the victim had “prevaricated, dissembled, and lied” in parts of her evidence, there was still sufficient proof that the Kannans were guilty of the multiple slavery offences.

The victim, who cannot be identified due to a court order, arrived in Australia from southern India in 2007 and lived at the Kannans’ family home until she was rushed to hospital in July 2015.

Attending paramedics found the victim in a pool of her own urine, barely conscious, weighing only 40kg, suffering hypothermia, altered consciousness, a urinary sepsis and untreated type 2 diabetes.

The victim subsequently gave evidence that she was subjected to serious assaults and was required to endure horrific living conditions.

This included evidence that she had been kept as a prisoner in the Kannans’ house and could not leave when the Kannans travelled, had been stabbed, beaten with sticks and frozen chicken, scalded with boiling water and had a plate banged against her head repeatedly.

Judges Priest, Niall and Macaulay found there had been no medical evidence to support any of these allegations, while a neighbour gave evidence that she visited the victim every day for a month while the Kannans were overseas and was given a key to the front door.

But the judges found that, nonetheless, “the preponderance of evidence would have justified the jury finding that the applicants had it within their power to determine how she conducted her daily life”.

Judges Priest, Niall and Macaulay also found it was open for the jury to find the Kannans retained the victim’s passport in order to control her capacity to leave the country.

The Kannans’ appeal over their sentences were also dismissed.

Kandasamy Kannan will be eligible for parole in July 2024, while Kumuthini Kannan will be eligible for parole in July 2025.

MUM SPIKED DRINKS TO KEEP DRUG COUPLE

A young couple caught up in Toowoomba’s drug trafficking trade had tried to get away from drugs only for his drug- addicted mother to spike their drinks to keep them addicted, the city’s Supreme Court was told in March.

Nikita Lee Lloyd, 27, and Tony Wayne Smith, 28, were both meth users and had started trafficking the drug in and around Toowoomba from May 2, 2020, the court was told.

However, after police raided their home on September 3, 2020, the couple ceased their trafficking business, Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald told the court.

About three months later, the pair again started trafficking meth, and this time their activities became more intense, and they were regularly selling the drug from small amounts such as a “point” for $100 up to an “8-ball” or 3.5g for $2400, she said.

The couple had a customer base of at least 33 people with six regulars, and they sold the drug from their home as well as delivering it.

Ms Friedewald said the Crown accepted the pair was selling the drug to support their own drug habit and going by “tick sheets” relating to supplying the drug and money owed it appeared the couple was owed $19,000 by customers and they owed $7000 to their suppliers.

Both pleaded guilty to trafficking in meth over the two periods of four months and nine months with Lloyd also pleading guilty to failing to provide her PIN for police to investigate her mobile phone which was accessed by police via the telecommunications provider.

Lloyd’s barrister Scott Lynch said the couple had fallen on hard times and had moved in with Smith’s mother, a long-time drug-addicted woman, who, when they tried to get away from drug use, spiked their drinks to keep them addicted for her own benefit.

Justice Peter Applegarth said it was “commendable” that both had worked hard toward self rehabilitation but the offending was serious.

Justice Applegarth sentenced Lloyd to four and half years in jail but ordered she be eligible to apply for parole as of January 14, 2024, after having served 10 months in custody, while Smith was sentenced to four years in jail with parole eligibility from November 15, 2023, after having served eight months.

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COUPLE GUILTY OF TORCHING HOUSE

A man in June avoided jail for watching his rental home burn after his wife set it on fire in a revenge attack on their landlord.

Keven James Gordan Watherston, 33, aided and abetted his wife, Rhiannon Sarri Watherston, 37, after she torched their Elizabeth South rental home on October 2, 2020.

During sentencing, the court heard Ms Watherston gathered cardboard boxes and clothes into a bedroom at the rental home before setting it on fire just before 2am.

Judge Michael Durrant said the “calculated and planned” fire caused “extensive damage” to multiple rooms at the property, leaving a $228,000 damage bill.

During Ms Watherston’s sentencing in October, the court heard her motivation was revenge and a desire to hurt the landlord and his family after they were given 90 days notice to vacate the premises.

Ms Watherston was captured on CCTV entering and leaving the house within three minutes, before being driven away by Mr Watherston.

“Your wife told you then that she had lit the fire,” Judge Durrant said.

Judge Durrant imposed a jail term of four years and three months on Ms Watherston, with a non-parole period of two years.

Mr Watherston also pleaded guilty to arson.

Scott Laidlaw, for Mr Watherston, told the court during sentencing submissions his client’s relationship with Ms Watherston was a loving one but wasn’t even in terms of the power balance.

The court heard Mr Watherston, who is on the disability support pension, had an intellectual disability and an IQ less than 55.

Judge Durrant sentenced Mr Watherston to two years and four months jail, with a non-parole period of one year and one month.

Due to Mr Watherston now being the primary carer of the couple’s children and lesser role in the offending, the sentence was suspended on a $500, two year good behaviour bond.

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HORRIFYING ATTACK ON TINDER DATE

A young couple lured a man into an armed robbery through a Tinder date, which ultimately cost him his car, phone and peace of mind.

Tyla Alain Khelloul, 23, pleaded guilty on January 30, in Gympie District Court to one count of armed robbery while in company.

His co-offender has not been caught.

The court heard Khelloul’s 18-year-old partner set up a date with the 21-year-old ­victim through Tinder on ­December 24, 2021.

She entered the victim’s car and Khelloul climbed into the back seat. The woman claimed her car was stolen and told him to search for her vehicle, the court heard.

She then asked him to drop her off at her uncle’s house, but led him to a deserted street. The woman took out a box cutter and gave the victim two options – to let her take the wheel or she would “stab him in the f–king throat”, Crown prosecutor Michael Andronicus said.

The woman took over the car as the victim moved to the front passenger seat before she took his phone and passed it to Khelloul in the back seat.

“While holding the knife, she also demanded the complainant to hand her his smartwatch,” Mr Andronicus told the court.

The man was eventually kicked out of his own car on a dirt road, the court heard.

Defence Barrister Simone Bain said Khelloul was a father to a three-year-old daughter and previously worked in a factory as well as a casino. He began using cannabis at 15 and meth from 18, Ms Bain said.

Judge Glenn Cash said it was “clearly a premeditated plan to ultimately rob him”.

Khelloul was arrested on February 4, 2022, but his partner was yet to be apprehended, the court heard.

He was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail and was due to be released on parole on April 30, 2023 with 185 days declared as time served.

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