A MAN has been sentenced to three months in prison, but will be out on parole by June.

Raymond John Coveney, 35, pleaded guilty to multiple charges in the Roma Magistrates Court, including wilful damage and dangerous drug possession.

Police prosecutor Sgt Shannon Bryce told the court the charges related to four incidents over the last six months.

One such incident, according to Sgt Bryce, happened when Mr Coveney ran from the court yard of a Roma motel into one of the rooms before moving into the bathroom and trying to rip the flyscreen off the window and escape.

Mr Coveney’s defence solictor Leslee Reed said her client was trying to escape people who were after his brother, with their identities becoming mixed up.

The prosecution also put forward a second incident on November 21, 2015 where the defendant was the passenger in a vehicle that was stopped near Bassett Park.

A search of the vehicle revealed drugs that Mr Coveney had shoved down his pants, a set of scales and two mobile phones with text messages relating to the sale of drugs.

Mr Coveney was also charged with having a phone with messages relating to the sale of drugs while in Chinchilla, also in November.

Sgt Bryce told the court Mr Coveney had six pages of criminal history and asked Magistrate Hasted to consider activating a suspended sentence hanging over the defendant’s head.

Mr Coveney’s defence solictor Leslee Reed asked the court for leniency in the form of a community-based order considering the father-of-four was seeking help for his drug dependency and was in full-time employment.

“My client says he now has got his life back on track and is seeing a social worker up at Roma Hospital to help with his problems,” Ms Reed said.

In sentencing, Magistrate Hasted decided to handed Mr Coveney a three-month jail sentence with a parole release date of one month.

“You have had the benefit of penalties in the form of fines and suspended sentences, and yet you are back before the courts again,” he said.

He will be released on June 10.