Canberra restaurateur jailed over cocaine shipment in car wax bottle

A well-known Canberra restaurateur has been sentenced to nearly five years behind bars for smuggling cocaine hidden in car wax bottles into Australia.

Canberra restaurateur John Phillip Harrington

John Phillip Harrington pleaded guilty to attempting to possess and trafficking a marketable quantity of illegal drugs.

The court heard Harrington and another man had gone to the United States with more than $40,000 in cash to buy the drugs in 2011.

Cocaine was shipped in one of five car wax bottles, with police seizing a quarter of a kilogram of pure cocaine.

The drugs were intercepted in Sydney by police, and the bottle containing the cocaine was substituted before it was delivered in Canberra.

Harrington, former owner of the now defunct Charlie Black's brasserie in Manuka, told the court he had ruined his successful restaurant business by developing a habit which cost between $600 and $1,200 a day.

He said he had often given away the drug to "big note" himself and impress young women.

The court heard he was to get 15 per cent of the deal for his own use.

But Justice John Burns found he had been out to make a profit, not just to service his own habit.

He also told the court the fact Harrington was suffering cancer did not call for a significant reduction in his sentence.

Harrington will be eligible for parole in 2016.

Source : ABC News   Elizabeth Byrne  November 13th 2014