Fiona Lee Jones jailed for selling drugs to undercover cop, using Eagles stepmum Kate Ainsworth as drug mule

A “middle class lady” and mum who sold drugs to an undercover cop and used disgraced school teacher and Eagles stepmum Kate Ainsworth as a mule has been jailed for four-and-a-half years. Fiona Lee Jones, 45, was sentenced in the District Court over five counts of offering to sell meth and two counts of selling the drug. The court heard at a previous appearance that Jones had sold 27.9 grams to an undercover cop in Warnbro in March of 2018, but her fate was delayed so her lawyer and the prosecutor could negotiate. At last week’s sentencing, District Court Judge Mark Herron said Jones’ crimes stretched from January to March 2018. In one instance, Jones arranged for Kate Ainsworth, a primary school teacher and stepmum of West Coast Eagles player Brayden, to transport drugs from South Yunderup to Esperance for 33-year-old man, Seth Andersen, to then distribute. But Andersen was stopped and searched by officers who found the drugs. He was later sentenced to 18 months jail for possession with intent to sell or supply. Ms Ainsworth was sentenced to 16 months in jail — suspended for 12 months — for her part in the deal. Her teaching registration was later cancelled. On March 29, Jones met an undercover cop at the Baldivis Shopping Centre and then drove to Warnbro train station, where she sold 27.9 grams of the drug valued at $7400. Judge Herron said the maximum for her crimes was a jail term of up to 25 years. If the drug haul was just 0.1 gram more the maximum would have been life in jail. Jones’ lawyer, Helen Prince, argued that after her client sold drugs to the undercover cop, she “desisted” by ignoring his attempts to get her to sell more and eventually blocked his number. The prosecution agreed with this. Ms Prince told the judge her client knew she was going to jail and had described it as “the beginning of my life.” She said her client had already applied for rehab and education courses. Ms Prince said Jones had lived for about 30 years in Esperance before moving to South Yunderup, and was the mother of two teenagers. “She ran businesses there, she was very involved in the local community, she was involved in the school community and so on,” she said. However, Ms Prince argued Jones had suffered “periods of stress” surrounding a marriage breakdown and the loss of her father and had started using meth in 2015. Ms Prince said her client’s time in custody had given her “clarity” on her situation. “I think it’s often difficult for someone who’s otherwise a fairly middle class lady to accept that in fact she’s a drug dealer and a drug user and in a nasty drug, that is methylamphetamine, ice,” she said. State prosecutor Justin Keogh described Jones’ crimes as “commercial offending over a period of time”. The judge accepted her pleas of guilty were made at the earliest chance, that she was remorseful and that she’d faced a dysfunctional background growing up and had managed to live a “steady and stable lifestyle” for a long time. However, Judge Herron said Jones was ”beyond the street level user/dealer and more towards the mid-range of the drug distribution network”. He said Jones had a “disregard for the law”, with a prior record including attempting to possess drugs with intent to sell or supply in 2008. Jones’ jail time was backdated a month and she was made eligible for parole after serving two years and six months.