{"id":442537,"date":"2026-01-28T08:34:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T08:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/442537\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T08:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T08:34:19","slug":"ex-roosters-skipper-spared-more-jail-for-drug-offences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/442537\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Roosters skipper spared more jail for drug offences"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former rugby league player fresh out of prison for attempted cocaine smuggling has been spared a return to jail for decade-old offences.<\/p>\n

Former Sydney Roosters skipper John Tobin, 66, walked out of Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday after admitting he committed multiple drug offences in 2014.<\/p>\n

Former Sydney Roosters skipper John Tobin has avoided going back to jail for more drug offences.\u00a0Photo: Dean Lewins\/AAP PHOTOS<\/p>\n

The veteran of 125 games for the Tri-Colours in the 1980s appeared in court after being released on parole from a NSW prison last June following a lengthy jail term.<\/p>\n

He had served eight-and-a-half years for his role in multiple attempts to import a total of 1.4 tonnes of cocaine into Australia by boat.<\/p>\n

“Desperate men do desperate things,” Tobin told AAP in an interview late last year.<\/p>\n

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Tobin on Wednesday pleaded guilty to nine counts including supplying drugs and possessing the equivalent of 134 grams of cocaine contained in 220g of substance.<\/p>\n

Tobin committed the offences in Queensland between May and October 2014, which included collecting drugs at a BP service station, Justice Rebecca Treston heard.<\/p>\n

Police raided Tobin’s house and found 134g of cocaine after the syndicate leader’s electronic communications were intercepted, crown prosecutor Erin Hanlon said.<\/p>\n

“The most serious offence was in 2014 when he agreed to hold a large quantity of dangerous drugs while (his co-offender) was overseas.”<\/p>\n

Tobin was granted bail at the time but went on to participate in major cocaine smuggling attempts.<\/p>\n

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He was present on two boat trips out to sea from Sydney in a bid to pick up drugs from container ships and “narco-submarines” from South America.<\/p>\n

They were trying to import cocaine in quantities up to 500kg along with 28kg of heroin.<\/p>\n

Tobin and other co-offenders were able to take possession of 500 packages of cocaine on a third attempt in December 2016.<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t a ringleader. Just another f***wit on the boat,” Tobin told AAP last year.<\/p>\n

He was arrested on Christmas Day 2016 after police intercepted the group offloading duffel bags full of drugs at a Sydney harbour boat ramp.<\/p>\n

“He was told he would be paid 10kg of cocaine or the equivalent in cash,” Ms Hanlon said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Sending Tobin back to prison would be “crushing” for him, Justice Treston heard.<\/p>\n

“He has certainly served a long sentence and seen the error of his ways,” defence barrister Remy Kurz said.<\/p>\n

Justice Treston said she accepted Tobin had an abusive childhood and had been addicted to alcohol and intravenous drugs for decades.<\/p>\n

“Your lengthy custody in NSW was characterised by unfortunate things happening to you in terms of severe and persistent bullying,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Although you found adjustment back into the community quite difficult … you have demonstrated a genuine attempt to put yourself back onto a different path.”<\/p>\n

Tobin was sentenced to a four years’ jail that was immediately and wholly suspended.<\/p>\n

Justice Treston told Tobin he would face a return to custody in both NSW and Queensland if he committed further offences.<\/p>\n

Tobin left court with family and supporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former rugby league player fresh out of prison for attempted cocaine smuggling has been spared a return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-442537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}